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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



POEMS 



BY 



HENRY HARMON CHAMBERLIN 












PRIVATELY PRINTED 
M C MX I 



( 



Copyright 1911 

BY 

Henry Harmon Chamberlin 



printed at 

The Commonwealth Press 

Worcester, Mass. 






©CI.A30 0230 



CONTENTS 



Morality and Legend 

The Queen's Necklace 1 1 

Severus at Eboracum 38 

The Court Jester 46 

Gentlemen of the Road 53 

The Carousal 58 

The Doom of Midgard 63 

The Harrowing of Hell 71 

MELUSINA 

Act I Betrothal 84 

Act II Under the Ocean 108 

Act III Daybreak Ashore 128 

Act IV Forty Days After 142 

Act V The Wedding Feast 154 

The Isles op Gold 

Invocation 173 

Our Villa 175 

Love's Discord 181 

The Second Birth 190 

The Prize of Life 252 

The Garden op the Heart 

To My Muse 297 

The Hills of Bethlehem 298 

To — 299 

Good lives are gardens 299 

The world was one grand rhythm 300 

Noisette 300 

A Child's Garden 300 

O children of the morning light 301 

The Honeymoon 301 

A Bowl of Roses 301 



CONTENTS 

To F. W. W 302 

Butterflies 302 

Drifting 303 

The Cloud Palace 304 

The Shower 305 

Violets in Dreamland 306 

Fulfillment 307 

A Double Dirge 308 

Lalage 308 

An Old Song 309 

Sunset 309 

One Little No 310 

Heard by the Wind 311 

Lesbia 311 

To One who was Wise in his own Belief . . . .312 

From Hafiz 312 

To a Friend 313 

Tu Ne Quaesieris 314 

Scatter the Rose 315 

A Ballade of Spring 316 

A Ballade of Winter 317 

A Ballade of Folly 318 

A Ballade of Omnipotence 319 

The Silent Song 320 

A Song of the Q. B. C 321 

Billy Dare 322 

Each from his lofty peak 323 

Salutatory 323 

The Veiled Spirit 325 

Nobody Knows 326 

The Ocean of Rest 326 

Flowers of Lethe 328 

The Wanderer 329 

Ultimate 330 



Sonnets 



The Altar of Poesie 333 

Prospect 333 

To B. W 334 

The Dawn 334 

Regina 335 

Wayfarers 335 

Violets 336 

The Awakening 336 

In Absence 337 

The Days of Catullus 337 



CONTENTS 7 

The Fall of Eros 338 

At Olympia 338 

The Accusation 339 

Immortality 339 

Stonehenge 340 

Redivivus 340 

High and Low 341 

Ad Astra 341 

Pictures in Florence 342 

The Medusa of Lionardo 

Madonna by Fra Lippo Lippi 

To Chanticleer 343 



Grotesque 



The Spell of the Yellow Beast ....... 347 

A Mother's Test 358 

Brownie Chorus 366 

The Owl and the Turtle Dove 367 

The Baby Trogan 369 

In a Scrap Book 370 

A Bit of old China 371 

Olympia 372 

The Frog's Warning 373 

Femina Nova 375 

The Lament of Sundry Angleworms . . . . , . 376 

The Joys of Venice 378 

To an Ape 379 

Epitaph for a Nonentity 379 

The Ballade of the Tourist 380 

The Ballade of Peter 381 

The Complaint of a Trained Nurse 382 

The Old Man Talks 383 

The Red Blooded Heroes 387 

Pug and Parrot 389 

Envoy 396 



MORALITY AND LEGEND 



DEDICATION 

These tales of yearning and op old unrest 

Alike where Thames or Ganges nears the sea, 

What e'er may be the noblest and the best, 
Dear, loyal friend, I dedicate to thee. 

But even if haply to the House op Fame 
I win at length with unreluctant feet, 

i would not have her halls resound thy name, 
Knowing that Lethe also may be sweet. 



THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE 
(prom the Jataka) 

Read here the story of Ananda told 
By the great Buddha in the days of old. 
Ananda, by the Master cherished more 
Than all the rest. His wisdom did restore 
The stolen jewel of Kosala's king, 
Sorely bewildered by that pilfering. 
"Screen thou the basin of thy palace yard," 
Counselled Ananda, "Then without retard, 
Summon thy slaves for washing of the hand." 
When thirteen slave girls at the King's command 
Had laved them in seclusions one by one, 
Behold the jewel flashed against the sun, 
Beneath the water jet, behind the screen; 
Nor any man could choose from out thirteen 
The girl who stole. That night within the Hall 
Of Truth assembled, the disciples all 
Lauded Ananda. "Venerable sage 
Fulfilled of ruth, the glory of old age, 
He found the royal gem by Reason's laws 
And a frail girl escaped the tiger claws 
Of royal justice." Entered unto them 
As they were holding question of the gem 
Gotama Buddha. Eyes could not endure 
His beauty like the sun's effulgence pure. 
Serene he questioned what might be their theme 
And, certified, continued thus: "I deem 
Ananda not the first man to restore 
Stolen adornments. Ages long before 
Jewels were robbed and women all were frail, 



12 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

As I can prove you in this age old tale." 

Then he to them revealed in reverend wise 

What Death and Birth had hidden from their eyes, 

As one lets loose the full moon to adorn 

The lofty vaults of air, where snows are born. 



The yellow bhunders jabbered in the palm 

And vexed the vernal breezes and the calm 

Of noon, while o'er steep rock and ferny bank 

Swift water foamed into a bathing tank. 

Over a white pavillion latticed, 

A yellow bhunder clambered overhead 

Eager to peep the fretwork in between 

Down at the bathing of Benares' queen 

Who, unprofaned with any other gaze, 

Came as the maiden moon in beauty ablaze 

Beclouded with black hair from crown to sole 

Save her large eyes that needed not the khol. 

Nearby those cleansing waters ran a path 

By fruitful mangoes hidden from the bath, 

Where, stealthy as black panther on the stir, 

Stole on the noon the king's high treasurer 

Lord Kamayana, all of scornful mien 

Unless he looked upon Benares' queen; 

So said the king's high priest upon that morn 

And hard the words and heavy to be borne 

For Kamayana called the brahmin still, 

Fat paunch and hypocrite who taught God's will 

And guzzled beer and food; the pundit, he 

Spake at his face the word, adultery; 

And either gainst the other was at odds 

Like men who care but little for the gods. 

While Kamayana with ignoring eye 

Made haste, by reason of some basketry, 



TH© QUEEN'S NEKCI/ACE 1 3 

Falling he lay upon his belly prone 

As he was wont to venerate the throne. 

The yellow bhunder dropped into the air; 

Upglancing with a scowl, the lord was ware, 

Of an old figure gnarled like a root 

Standing at gaze amid the mango fruit; 

And wrath a priestly pundit would despise 

Swelled at his heart and kindled in his eyes. 

"What dost thou here, old man, in king's domain? 

So may thy soul never to good attain!" 

And Kamayana, raising up his hand, 

Struck him upon the mouth. " 'T is my command! 

Go thee before me! Quit thee of thy gaze!" 

"Father of gods favor they works and ways 

And titles and emoluments ! But I 

A poor old sudra crave thy charity! 

Respect the aged. Lo ! 't is writ in full 

'The lordly and the young be merciful 

Unto old age' !" "Old age! old fool! have done! 

Thy babble doth offend me! Get thee gone!" 

But ere the aged man once more could speak 

Louder than many apes, rose a shrill shriek 

And with a frightened face of dole and teen 

Came unto them a slave girl of the queen! 

"O me asleep! stripes and a girl's grief! 

Lord Kamayana, hast thou seen the thief?" 

"Only this vagrant who the meeting marred 

Twixt me and — verily it shall go hard 

With him! Where is the queen?" "The queen 

attires. 
She will not favor now my lord's desires; 
And I have lost the pearls of price, and woe 
Upon my head what time that she doth know!" 
Ivo! mid the leaved tracery of the trees 
Glittered tall soldiers in gold cuirasses. 
' ' What, ho ! 't is Kamayana who doth call ! 



14 MORAIylTY AND I^GEND 

Grapple this robber! make him tell you all 

His story! Have you at him! Beat him down! 

Break you the ribs under the dirty brown!" 

They fell upon the sudra with foul words; 

They beat him with the pummels of their swords : 

"What! aged villany! art thou a thief? 

Where's the queen's necklace?" "Give my sides 

relief!" 
Groaned the old man, "Yea! take me to the king 
I took the necklace! I took anything 
You will! Father of gods! I pray you cease! 
Mercy! have mercy! Leave me be at peace!" 

Half hidden by tall grass in open space, 

With hounds in leash and cheetah for the chase, 

Over against a royal banyan, sate 

King Brahmadatta canopied in state. 

The umbrella of white silk embroidered 

With ruddy gold was raised above his head 

And plump in the paunch, near to the king's right hand 

The priestly pundit solemnly did stand, 

His naked breast tattooed with Brahma's word, 

Proud of his wisdom and his triple cord. 

And while a piper underneath the trees 

Played to the dancers with light melodies, 

Came Kamayana at the king's command 

And murmured at the kissing of the hand: 

"Lord of the world, long loved of Indra, king, 

Before thee now thy guards a captive bring 

Who now await thy mandate." "Come they here." 

They dragged the man before him, limp with fear. 

Said the good king: "Whoever mayst thou be 

Who all against thy will dost visit me? 

If any tale, so tell it and be brief." 

' * King of the time, thy servant is a thief ! 

The peerless pearls, I held them as mine own, 



THE QUEEN'S NECKIyACE 1 5 

A miserable thief, but not alone! 
There is one man, a goblin's avatar, 
Who is more worthy of thy wrath by far, 
High born, of crafty soul, thy minister! 

king, it was thy lord high treasurer, 
Who did command me, crossing of my path 
Even as thy spotless queen was in the bath, 
He told me as I valued age and ease 

To steal the pearls all for his thieveries! 
'Tis he alone can tell you where they bide; 

1 stole who have them not!" Loudly outcried 
Lord Kamayana, but the first words stopped; 
Into his brain, like unto water, dropped 
Thought upon thought how the exact amount 
Of rupees pilfered at his last account, 

All the good gains, the little and the large 

Would be examined if the lying charge 

He did deny in full. Upon his fate 

He gazed and gazing he did hesitate; 

And at the last he knelt upon his knee. 

"King of the time, I stole thy gems," quoth he, 

"Bid by thy priest on peril of my soul, 

I took the peerless pearls to pay him toll. 

I prayed a lighter penance that he give; 

For blameless in thy sight I fain would live. 

I offered half my gold upon his shrine. 

He answered back to any prayer of mine, 

'I do desire the pearls.' Great king he knows 

How the world changes, how the spirit flows, 

The naga song beneath the deep sea wave, 

The birth of Man, the life beyond the grave! 

A brahmin he, and I an ignorant man 

Him to deny his purport and his plan, 

Who knows the incarnation's mystery. 

Could such a man, of little honesty, 

By whom the heavens and earth be understood, 



1 6 MORAUTY AND LEGEND 

Rob thee for gain and not for greater good? 

A vulgar thief to violate thy laws, 

And not to steal the pearls for nobler cause 

Than I could dream of? Lo! mayhap for thee 

He will unveil the sacred mystery, 

Of kindness for to ease thy royal mind. 

To truth and holiness he is inclined. 

Bid him to speak, so may we live and learn!" 

And the fat brahmin shook from stem to stern, 

His bosom and his brain in troubled state, 

Whereby he had no room for love or hate, 

Resentment or revenge or swift surprise, 

Only vile fear and aptitude for lies. 

He guiltless, even as a guilty thing, 

Grovelled upon the grass and grovelling, 

Moaned like the wind in the tree tops: "It was I 

To whom he gave the pearls! It was a lie 

He tells ! King of the age, 't was covetize 

That made him take the jewels and he lies! 

'Twas covetize that prompted him, for he 

Findeth thy bounty insufficiency; 

And fain he would augment the stolen wealth; 

And even the royal pearls he took by stealth; 

Whereof the gods who see by day and night 

Afflicted his impiety with fright. 

So came he unto me in secrecy, 

His visage wet with tears, and begged of me; 

'O holy brahmin, lo! I do implore 

That thou unto the queen the pearls restore, 

So shall I pay thee back all with my tears, 

Contritely to the gods in future years! 

Now is he fain to blacken me with lies, 

Who only erred to do him services! 

O base ingratitude! O sovereign guilt, 

Whereby my blood all innocent were spilt! 

The burden of that lie is all too much! 



THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE 17 

The cauldrons of Avici yawn for such! 

This island world create by Brahma, lord, 

A million million fathoms deep and broad, 

Even as a sun cracked gourd for such a liar, 

Shall yawn before his footsteps and hell fire 

Upleaping terrible and beautiful 

Shall wrap him round as in red robe of wool! 

That is the portion of his devilish guile 

Who seeketh me, a brahmin, to defile!" 

"So let him be," said Brahmadatta then, 

"He lies in terror, like to other men; 

But if the necklace be within thy hand, 

Then give it me. That is my sole command." 

Like silly quail a-flutter in a snare, 

The brahmin of his error was aware. 

"King of the times," he stammered, "I — I gave, 

I deemed mine aid for matter of more grave 

Importance needful. Pearls we all confess 

Are but a decoration for the dress. 

I gave them to the piper, he to give 

Unto thy queen, so let the truth to live. 

He hath them now beside him as I ween, 

If not yet given to thy spotless queen." 

"Nay," said the king, "That veil is all too thin! 

Thou shalt endure the ripening of thy sin! 

Beware thou brahmin lest the stern decree 

Thou madest now, the future hold for thee; 

For down in darkest hell without a dawn 

A double cauldron, as I ween, doth yawn! 

And my musician, what hast thou to say? 

Guard well thy words, if thou be fain to play 

Thy pipes once more on earth!" He bowed him low. 

Over his mobile mouth a smile did go. 

Quoth he: "King Brahmadatta, lord of all 

From Coromandel unto high Chitral! 

By winged Amanga, Lord of Love, I swear, 



1 8 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Whom Latchiani did to Vishnu bear, 

My words will match in measure, span for span, 

Those of the brahmin, wise and holy man; 

Yea, verily thy pundit priest shall prove 

A child of Wisdom and a child of Love, 

Where Wisdom guideth Love in such a sort, 

That he from all men fain would hide his sport, 

Knowing that men do never gladly see 

The sins of those in truth, that holy be. 

On yestereve I therefore do confess 

He cast the garment of his holiness 

Aside and came to tell me he desired 

Siri the nautch girl, by all men admired 

Next to the queen in beauty; so I saw 

All for Amanga he would break the law 

Of Brahma; but the nautch girl at the sight 

Of his fat paunch held him in deep despite; 

She answered in the tossing of her curls 

Who won her love must clasp the queen's own pearls 

Around her throat, who never would be bent 

Unto light love, unless by ornament. 

She deemed that feat impossible; but lo! 

A holy brahmin many things doth know. 

King of the Age, Benares' moon and star 

By night, by day our sun, in peace and war 

Lord of our lives, by the still gods I swear, 

As truly as the sudra first did bear 

The pearls away; even as the truth outburst 

From Kamayana, who in turn was curst 

With their possession under Brahma's ban; 

As truly as thy priest, that pious man, 

For Siri's sake is by his passion whirled 

Adown the vortex of a sinful world; 

As truly as the bhunder in the tree 

Is apt to ape my blameless melody; 

So do I swear by the still gods above, 



the queen's necklace i 9 

The brahmin all on fire with Siri's love 

Stole for her sake the necklace of the queen 

That now is hers; and I, the go-between!" 

Said Brahmadatta : "If that tale be true, 

'Twill be the worse for both, if false for you! 

To steal the royal necklace for a kiss? 

Insolent jester, 'tis no time for this! 

Where is the girl?" Out of his eyeballs clear 

Shone forth a fulgency that made men fear; 

And little was the time the guards allowed 

To drag the girl from out the trembling crowd; 

Who knelt before him with bowed head and arms 

Aloft and hands outstretched. " Keep from all harms 

Thy servants, king!" "O people of great greed 

Ye harm yourselves with your own word and deed! 

Where be the pearls? We will hear one more lie! 

Where be the pearls? " "Great king, I know not, I ! " 

"Rise up and look at me! I'll have that word 

Again!" "Benares' king and mighty lord, 

The meanest of thy myriad dancing girls 

Knows not at all of any of thy pearls; 

For even as before thee now I stand 

I never took them out of any hand 

Nor did desire them! Lo! 'tis manifest 

That story is a lie and witless jest. 

King of the Time, before thee now I swear 

I spoke not to thy brahmin nor was ware 

The flame of holy chastity had ceased 

To burn within the bossom of thy priest. 

Behold I stand before thee a poor girl 

Below the least desire of royal pearl. 

Scorned by the subtle world, a slave am I. 

'Tis Brahma's chosen who are wont to lie! 

I am all too young nor yet so very wise 

To find me favor in a pundit's eyes! 

I am not wise enough and all too young 



20 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Between my teeth to hold a lying tongue. 

I am not the equal of these mighty lords; 

I neither do their deeds nor say their words; 

And though they somewhat worthier did prove 

Not all thy pearls could buy me for their love!" 

She stood before him, beautiful and proud, 

In all the pride to youth and beauty allowed. 

Said Kamayana: "Lo! the king hath heard, 

Trust water and wind, but not a woman's word!" 

"King of the Times!" the outraged brahmin cried, 

"Here on my knees! Deem not that thus I lied! 

King of Benares, listen to me swear! 

By all the gusty devils of the air, 

By all the deep green devils in the seas, 

By all the rough rind devils in the trees, 

By Brahma's beard and Siva's majesty, 

I a pure priest, how could I lie to thee? 

For Holiness and Truth and Purity 

Are Wisdom's children; and of Wisdom I — 

To holy meditation I'd retire!" 

"Yea," said the king, "That is my strong desire! 

Thou and the rest whom Honor hath in hate 

Immured within my lodge shall meditate. 

Of all these words there is a weariness. 

And be they false or true or more or less, 

We will inquire another time, and how. 

It is my will to find the necklace now. 

Therefore, my people, search about the park 

From dark till dawn and from the dawn till dark 

And when the peerless pearls ye duly find, 

I will make known what now is in my mind." 

Chattered the hooded apes high in the trees; 

And tossed the dhauri flowers upon the breeze; 

And broke off twigs to pelt the men beneath; 

Who searched the pearls mid many a fallen leaf 

In terror and amazement of that deed, 



the queen's necklace 21 

Lest worse befall them did they not succeed. 
They searched the mangoes all along the path; 
They searched the shores that bordered on the bath; 
They beat among the bushes on the bank; 
They waded in the stream and dredged the tank; 
Female or male, the slaves they searched all o'er; 
They searched the white pavillion, walls and floor; 
And still the bhunders chattered in the trees 
And tossed the scarlet sepul on the breeze. 

II 

Upon that search there was not any cease; 

Unto the royal bosom came no peace; 

But Brahmadatta paced his pleasance round 

Until in a far corner of the ground 

Where twining paths the jasmine did embower, 

Where still the tree of wisdom was in flower, 

With robe of yellow and face to wonder at, 

On cool and shaded earth an hermit sat 

Like statue of gold upon the temple stair; 

And stole a blessed fragrance on the air, 

So sweet ineffably it was to stir 

Near to the spot where he did minister. 

For if beside him at a task you wrought, 

The fairly ordered fervor of calm thought 

And loving kindness, nevermore did cease 

To soothe the soul with plenitude of peace; 

For out of Karma' s unreality 

In clouded heavens that sempiternal be, 

To sheer vicissitude of death and birth, 

It was the Bodhisatta come to earth. 

And Brahmadatta, troubled at his grace 

Of bearing and the favor of his face 

Spake in low tone: "O father, hast thou seen 

One wandering in the woods with thievish mien?" 



22 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

"Yea, many thus I've seen," he answered brief, 

"But none of all I truly deem the thief. 

By myriad rumors wafted to mine ear 

Of the lost pearls there doth no man appear 

Who from an incarnation of past birth 

And former knavery upon this earth, 

Reborn in these our days, to thee could bring 

A repetition of his theft, O king! 

Such is the truth. I feel it in my breast. 

So shall the future make it manifest." 

"Thou feelst it? What are feelings? These are blind 

To lead men unto truth! My heart and mind 

Are sorely vexed with robbery concealed 

And deep dishonor many times revealed! 

My servants, year by year whom I did hold 

As precious in their worth as virgin gold, 

Now in a moment, even at a breath, 

Dims the bright polish and reveals beneath 

The tarnished copper! What can they not be 

Who, aping honor and great piety, 

Lie like an outcast coolie! I will know 

The depth of vileness where their souls may go. 

So thou dost aid me!" "Son it is not wise 

For whoso fain would look with equal eyes 

To gaze on men and women at their worst. 

With evil is the best of man accurst. 

A million years be not enough in time 

To know the whole, the vile and the sublime ! 

Wherefore 'tis well to turn thine eyes away 

From petty theft unto the nobler day 

Of souls more worthy and of deeds more true 

Where Knowledge gives not what the soul must rue." 

"Yea! precepts!" said the king, "I ask advice. 

The joys of knowledge are not ever nice! 

The men I deemed all true — I will know all 

Their evil deeds whatever may befall. 



THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE 23 

I who the evil of this realm would cure 

Must know it all and knowing it, endure. 

Father, 'tis thou canst aid me." "King of the Time 

If thus thou be resolved to fix a crime, 

Come thou with me this evening in disguise 

To hearken to the captives and their lies. 

So mayst thou view the vile veracity 

Of these thy servants in their lives with thee, 

Envy and hate and foul ingratitude, 

The evil that men do and not the good ; 

But turn again. The knowing of this thing 

Doth not befit the bosom of a king. 

A sorry lesson in a sorry school, 

It cannot learn thee better how to rule; 

And though my preaching may thy whims annoy, 

Hearing thereof shall give thee little joy." 

"No more!" the king replied, "I'll have my will. 

I shall know all the little deeds of ill, 

The little words of envy they have said. 

Of knowing these no king shall be afraid!" 

In the king's lodge the daylight hours did go 

For the five captives haltingly and slow. 

Under the carven pillars of the court 

In glare of noon they made a forced resort 

Near to the middle pool. The guard nearby 

Kept watch upon them with a quiet eye. 

For hours on hours these captives of the king's 

Spake as men stammer, of indifferent things, 

Full fain with empty words to wear away 

Their premonition of a judgment day 

On earth. Upon the stilly afternoon 

Came slumber to their eyelids like a boon 

Till the cramped muscle and the aching bone 

No longer loved the hardness of that stone. 

And all in weariness at eventide 



24 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

They woke and viewed the court from side to side, 

Where the hot splendor of the sunset light 

Fled from the still, hot darkness of the night. 

And all with nerves a stretch and wide awake 

They saw within that space the pillars make 

Shade upon shade upon the polished floor, 

Pillars with monster figures carven o'er 

Save in dread dreams unseen by human eye, 

That leered and flaunted all outlandishly. 

Strange shapes within the dying light they made 

Upon the gleaming floor, in shade on shade. 

The guard was gone and twilight drew apace 

And each to each upon the other's face, 

At the faint gray of twilight, thus alone, 

In fourfold pallor, there might read his own. 

So at the bourne of night, their thoughts were racked 

With nameless horror and their hearts attacked 

With dread of the long dark and what would bring 

Disaster on the morn before the king. 

Quoth the musician, braving out a yawn, 

"Must we our vigils keep until the dawn? 

The guard's not here; and silence may permit 

The joy of music and the gracious wit. 

How the time wears! L/Ook you, 'tis all too long. 

What say you comrades? I will sing a song 

Fit for a king or Bodhisatta's ear; 

So Siri dance a turn. Let us have here 

Play for the senses, and the tedious hours 

Will pass like pleasant fragrance of strange flowers!" 

"Nay!" said the brahmin, "Look upon the floor! 

The dreadful shapes! The lions seem to roar 

Destruction on our heads! The elephants 

Tread down our destinies like puny ants! 

Varuna draws to darkness! Brethren here 

It is the hour to watch in prayer and fear!" 

Said Kamayana: "Wilt thou fear alway 



THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE 25 

And dodder at thy prayers till dawn of day? 

Let's have a song! a song upon the fret 

Of the world! a song that teaches to forget! 

Come forth thou daughter of love unto the dance!" 

"Nay, not one step will I my feet advance 

For thee lord liar nor the craven priest! 

It is the hour for the royal feast! 

Would I were there, dancing before the wine! 

'Twas thy coarse jest and not the fault of mine 

Prisons me here, O man of brutish word! 

I would my tongue were like a keen-edged sword!" 

"Why!" said the piper, "I did think to choose 

Thee for these goodly fellows, to amuse 

Their long captivity and all our dearth, 

In tribute to thy beauty and thy mirth. 

'Tis thus thou wilt repay me?" "I repay 

Dross for the dross and gold for gold alway; 

Thee only in the silence of disdain!" 

"Hist! hist! there was a noise! it sounds again! 

Under the eastern columns in deep shade!" 

Shuddered the sudra, "'Twas a wail it made, 

And it comes nearer, nearer! O ye gods, 

Scourge not the innocent thus with your rods! 

The naga! the garuda! the black terror!" 

"Brethren, if any fears, he fears in error." 

A voice came from the eastern colonnade, 

'"Tis only I, an humble man, yet made 

Of brahmin stock, who seek on prison floor 

Asylum, being lost in the night and poor!" 

So in the paling of the sunset light 

Upon the gray and utmost verge of night, 

Stepped forth the holy hermit like the sun 

In farthest east, when daylight hath begun; 

And while he crossed his legs upon the ground 

And glanced all mildly at the people round, 

To him a tall, majestic figure stole 



26 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

In rags, and lit four sticks and put a bowl 

Of earthenware above and in a trice 

Out of a wallet poured the husked rice; 

And when the boiling of the rice was done, 

Out spake the holy hermit: "Lo! my son 

Take thou this food in place of better meat 

A gift unto our brethren that they eat." 

The dusky figure drew anigh the priest: 

"Brother, wilt thou partake of this our feast?" 

"I touch that food? A holy Brahmin I, 

King Brahmadatta's chaplain! and I cry 

Dolor to heaven and insult unto thee! 

How are the righteous brought to misery! 

Before I take the food impure that goes 

Out of thy hands, I'll be the meat of crows 

And vultures! Oh! how changed my former lot 

When from an honored king the rice I got, 

But yesterday from his own hands for me 

Polluted by the proffered aid of thee!" 

Before the Brahmin's face the figure stirred 

Not once nor answered him upon that word 

But wending to the rest, in a short while 

The strong lips parted in a scornful smile. 

By all the rest, each in his turn, refused, 

Struck by the treasurer, struck and abused 

Even by the sudra, he at Siri's hand 

With changeless visage lastly took his stand, 

Who stirred at his approach and felt his eyes 

Fixed on her face and in a half surprise 

And fear upglancing, gave a stifled scream 

Like one who feels the passion of a dream. 

Quickly again recovered, in a trice 

Put forth her hand and took a dole of rice 

While softly murmuring: "What mischance can bring 

Thee here in this vile raiment, O my king?" 

"Soft!" whispered Brahmadatta, "Royalty 



THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE 27 

And I be parted here; and thou must see 

The helper of an hermit with thine eye; 

Take thou the dole of rice nor question why!" 

"Faugh!" said the piper, "Siri now doth go 

Coquetting with an half caste!" "Yea and woe 

On me!" groaned out the priest, "Woe upon me 

Here amid slaves and dancing girls to be! 

Yet it is written: 'Be Misfortune's friend 

So shall thy spirit prosper in the end!' 

Who art thou, hermit? There is on thy head 

The sacred topnot. From thy hand instead 

Soiled though it be with husked food unclean 

I will take food. A Brahmin thou, I ween — 

One of the strange new sect who by lost ways 

Dost wander weary with the dust of days! 

Where was thy dwelling place?" "Over the world 

Through long conflicting aeons, always hurled, 

'Mid the red pangs of ages hurled alway 

I have wandered still; and I have had my day. 

Now 'tis of life the blissful end and close. 

After this vestment, I do seek repose, 

Exempt forevermore from toil and strife, 

The pageantry and sordor of this life, 

From earth and soiled achievement I would cease 

On Buddha's breast to gain perpetual peace — 

Nirvana's realm where lotus doth not bloom, 

Realm where the cradle rocks not, nor the tomb 

Shuts in, nor birth nor death nor second birth 

Nor any fevered phantasy of earth. 

Into that boundless realm there doth not creep 

E'en the sweet stupor of the poppied sleep 

Nor night nor the clear day nor fair nor foul; 

Only deep peace of an extinguished soul!" 

So fell his words full soft as lotus bloom, 

Fragrant with rest and peace in gathering gloom 

Of latter twilight, and the brahmin stirred 



28 MORAUTY AND I^GEND 

By the fair favor of that wondrous word, 

"Brother," quoth he, "Thou errest in the light 

Of truth; and yet, the still and ceaseless night 

Thy soul aspires to, naught else can be 

Than depth of universal mystery. 

Thou errest from the pathway of thy creed 

Foregathering with the needy in their need. 

Thy food is of the unhulled rice prepared 

By tainted hands; as ever pariah fared 

Thou farest; yet I know in Brahma's plan 

Thy soul was made to be an holy man, 

Though marred by matter of mere heresy. 

I therefore do beseech thee, even I 

Chaplain to Brahmadatta, king of the age, 

Cast not away that goodly heritage; 

Forswear the vicious teaching, so at last 

Thou shalt regain the blessing of thy caste, 

Whom Brahma first created by his word 

Above domain of king and mighty lord 

Establishing the equal and the right, 

Whereby the isles of earth as garden bright 

Shall bloom!" Said Kamayana: "Outcast priest, 

From thy dull homily hast never ceased 

Until thou showest thine addled brain to be 

Thrice lacquered over with hypocrisy! 

Liar and lifelong hypocrite, disowned 

By the elect of Brahma, unatoned 

Thy guilt, and yet thou pratest as by right 

Even as God's chosen, underneath the night! 

Have done!" "And why thou lord high treasurer 

Should I have done? And wherefore dost thou stir 

Against me? Are not all men's lies alike 

And thou a liar? Or doth perchance it strike 

Thee in thy wisdom, that thy lordly caste 

Second to mine alone from first to last 

Can enter into crime both late and soon 



the; queen's necklace 29 

And in great Brahma's eyes be yet immune?" 

Said the musician: "Even as at night 

One fares by many pitfalls with a light, 

So doth your holiness make reason clear. 

Like temple bells your discourse to mine ear; 

That doth befit an inner palace room 

Edged with soft divans! Even as a broom 

Your words have swept the dust out of my brain; 

So unto me your holiness makes plain 

How vile this liar and how insolent 

Whom from high station wicked works have sent 

To custody!" "Yea truly he is one 

A giddy pate like thee, should ever shun 

As I full oft have preached at thee of yore. 

So now thou dost confess my wisdom store?" 

"Yea, for he's worse than a vile carrion crow 

That picks the bones of a dead buffalo." 

Said Kamayana: "Pundit, priest and lord, 

I do repent me of my hasty word. 

Prithee no more!" "'Tis only natural 

That thou wouldst hate my homilies all in all 

With all the fervor of thy blackened heart 

Because they show the world how vile thou art. 

But ere the holy hermit hence doth go, 

I will have him and even his slave to know — " 

"Fool!" said the treasurer, "Dost thou not see 

The piper stirs up strife twixt thee and me 

To give the rest their sport until the dawn? 

How like an old bell wether thou art drawn!" 

"Friends," said the pundit, "I shall show in full 

Myself beside this man like washen wool, 

He seeking to defile me with his tongue; 

And when the evil of his song is sung 

And mine the second part, 'O turn again!' 

He says, ' Thou art a butt !' And I '11 make plain, 

So that I be not fore Benares' king 



30 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

The depth of Hell his soul is entering! 

Art not alone a liar, thou churl and cur! 

Full many a graver charge I will prefer 

Against thee! Yea, musician, grasp him tight! 

I am a man of peace who may not fight. 

Stop fast his mouth! The royal guard is gone. 

For us and for the holy man alone, 

Whisper the secret that the south winds blow 

Around about Benares to and fro! 

Thou art not he who stole the royal pearls 

For any one, still less for dancing girls! 

Thy knavery disdains a single string 

Of pearls, thou steadfast robber of the king! 

Out of the royal treasure for one year 

A shortage in his tablets doth appear 

Of half a crore of rupees; and 'tis said 

How do I know who nothing am afraid 

To tell? Ask Nanda of the gold bazaar 

How he gets diamonds, what avatar 

Brings to him gems of lustre far more clear 

Than all Golconda gave us for ten year! 

I took his conscience coin ! 'T is my belief 

Lord Kamayana is the biggest thief 

In all the kingdom! greater yet I ween, 

Who is full fain to steal the king's own queen, 

As all about Benares now is blown 

Save by the winds that eddy round the throne! 

In alley and bazaar, 't is known full clear 

I brush the rumors from the king's right ear! 

I took thy hush money! Undutiful, 

My shame beside thine own is washen wool ! 

How shall I fear thee now in anything 

Who art a double traitor to the king?" 

So at the closure of that brahmin chant, 

The hermit's helper, whom the gods did grant 

Great majesty in rags, did sudden cry 



the queen's necklace 3 1 

With a loud voice and beat his breast: "Ai! ai! 

Dishonored! vile beyond all punishment!" 

"My son, it is enough. The gods have sent 

Sorrow on all, even on Benares' king." 

So spake the holy hermit, beckoning 

The guard, who, starting forth, obeisance made 

Under the shadow of the colonnade. 

"Conduct us hence," the hermit gave command, 

"My son, curb the hot tears and stay thy hand! 

Yea, guard, conduct us quickly in good sooth; 

For here there is much talk and little truth!" 

When both were at the palace; "Out, alas!" 
Groaned the great king, "that this should come to 

pass! " 
So with a veil he covered up his head 
And down he fell and lay there as one dead. 
Into a secret chamber, bore the king 
The hermit and he took the signet ring 
And summoned forth a lord who came at call 
And bowed before the ring. "How doth befall 
The search?" the hermit questioned. "None hath 

heard 
About the peerless pearls." "I trust thy word," 
The hermit answered, "Neither man nor woman 
Is found. The robber can be hardly human 
Thus to evade. 'T is perfect wisdom pleads, 
Go to the trinket vendors; buy glass beads; 
Take thou the beads and make a dozen string; 
Get thee twelve apes; girdle their capering 
And let them loose! But this is first to see; 
The king in secret chamber needeth thee 
Where thou shalt find him heavy and sore oppressed, 
The goblin of black care upon his breast. 
Look to the king and buy me of glass beads 
And Wisdom is rewarded of wise deeds." 



32 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

III 

The yellow bhunders leapt from palm to palm 

And vexed the vernal breezes and the calm 

Of noon; and all hilarious were their deeds, 

Whose hairy shanks were fulgent with glass beads. 

Anear the pool King Brahmadatta sate 

Beside the Bodhisatta in high state. 

Amid the branches of a wisdom tree 

Where the ripe figs were many for to see, 

A yellow bhunder perched in a shrill chatter 

As if uneasy o'er a weighty matter; 

And round the fragile waist like cummerbund 

More precious than a kingdom's yearly fund, 

Gathered in far Ceylon, down in the whirl 

Of the green water, pearl engirdled pearl, 

Lucent and round and rosy and as bright 

As peaked Himalay in sunset light. 

"So", said the king, "We have the pearls at last!" 

And a swift coolie his brown body cast 

Against the trunk and climbed from limb to limb 

Where bhunder upon bhunder screeched at him; 

And in the topmost branches at the last 

He caught and held the yellow bhunder fast. 

Then as the coolie breathless toward the king 

Held up that wrathful bhunder chattering, 

People were ware who called their wits to aid, 

The monkey was no man nor yet a maid. 

"So," said the king, "it truly doth befall 

A woman stole the jewels after all. 

I marvel not; for never 't was the plan 

Of God such baubles be beloved of man; 

But woman loves the showy gaud, I ween, 

Whether an ape or like my faithless queen." 

So spake he bitterly upon that day. 

Then to the Bodhisatta he did say: 



THE queen's necklace 33 

"Father, thy holiness hath pleased me well; 

Thy placid wisdom is my citadel; 

Thy counsels be the very prop of kings; 

Lo! I beseeth thee ask me for three things 

And I will grant them whatsoe'er they be. 

In word and deed thou hast been true to me. " 

The Bodhisatta bowed his holy head 

In reverence, but never a word he said. 

"Bring forth the captives!" Soon they came all 

bound, 
And fell before him, prostrate on the ground. 
"Lo, " said the king, "what rascal fools they be 
Who seek the robbers' gallows eagerly! 
Which were their due, but Justice must relent 
Save for that lie, if they be innocent." 
"Yea king," they answered, "save for that one lie, 
We are innocent before thee utterly." 
"Let Siri go and bring the bhunder here 
And thou, my pious pundit, draw thee near 
And look upon the moon of dancing girls 
For whose sweet sake thou stolest of the pearls. 
Yea, both I '11 shut within the selfsame cage 
To be the scorn and wonder of the age." 
"King," said the hermit, "in humility 
I pray thee let the ape go in the tree; 
'T is the first boon." "Yea, father, thou hast right; 
Sorry am I, thy favor is so slight. 
Take off the pearls and when the ape is gone, 
We will enclose her paramour alone." 
So all about the group in the open air 
Loud laughter filled the forest everywhere, 
Save for the brahmin who unceasingly 
Cried mercy on his shame and misery: 
"Oh king of truth and justice, deign awhile, 
Have pity on our woe, however vile! 
Haggard in watchful hunger! Oh, relent! 



34 MORAUTY AND LEGEND 

Lo, at thy throne thy servant doth repent!" 
"Art hungered?" said the king, "It was my will 
That each and all of you should have his fill 

of rice!" 
"King, there was none! an abject slave 
Whose duty bears dead bodies to the grave — 
Even us by the lie brought low and vile, 
Nor I nor any could our caste defile; 
For still a little of our former pride 
Within our captive bosoms did abide. 
He offered some chance food, some carrion meat 
By us reject. The girl alone did eat, 
Never by prostitution brought as low! 
O just and powerful monarch! 'twas not so 
Thou wouldst provide unto a poor soul's need, 
Heavy at heart even at a small misdeed! 
Pity us all an-hungered!" Said the king: 
"I know your fast. O blind unreasoning 
Brutes! it was I who proffered you that dole." 
So saying, he beckoned and one brought a bowl 
Of earthernware and gave it in his hand; 
And he, uprising from his throne, did stand 
Over them all and held on high that bowl 
And fear came over either caitiff soul; 
And Brahmadatta frowned upon them all: 
"O ye dishonorable! who play at ball 
With folly and lies! Thou pundit and high priest, 
Who from thy craven lies hast never ceased! 
And thou who for long years hast used by stealth 
The treasures of the realm for private wealth, 
Who, dearer than my kingdom and my life 
Hast riven my honor and debauched my wife; 
And thou who knewest about my faithless queen, 
Who worse than any open foe hast been, 
Whose wit is even less than thine honesty! 
What can be said or done for thee and thee? 



the queen's necklace 35 

Unto what torments do they both belong 

Who thus my meanest servitor would wrong? 

Take both these men who thus have wronged me, 

Into my palace. Let the rest go free. 

And since my proffered food they both gave o'er 

So let them keep their fast forevermore; 

Let the soul linger and the tortured breath 

Till for long hours they wish and pray for death; 

Let the slow torment eat the soul away 

Little by little, as for death they pray; 

So let them vainly pray nor death come soon! 

Father, ask if thou wilt, thy second boon!" 

"King of the time," the Bodhisatta said, 

May never evil light upon thy head! 

I pray for second boon that thou remit 

Thy threat of torture, every jot of it. " 

"Why, " said the king, "more easy 't were for me 

To give an hundred tuskers unto thee, 

Laden with gold; and yet I grant." "And so 

May'st thou misfortune never undergo! 

Thirdly as boon, I pray that thou restore 

To these the honors they have lost before!" 

"Ha!" said the king, "I'd liefer give thee all 

The power and pomp Benares doth enwall! 

Ask me some other favor!" "King that is 

My boon. Yet if thy promise go amiss — " 

"Nay!" said the king, ''why wilt thy give them back 

The fortune that my justice made them lack? 

Thy boons are strange and quaint and out of hand. 

I ask the reason ere I give command. 

Why dost thou beg my bounty for two slaves 

Whom I do know for traitors, fools and knaves? 

Why give the greater offices of state 

To men on the highway to prison gate?" 

"Great king," said he, '"Tis perfect Wisdom pleads. 

The two poor fools repent them of their deeds. 



36 MORAUTY AND LEGEND 

\ 

With lust and lies whereof they were full fain 

They are not like to foul themselves again; 

They have the terror of their lesson; they 

Are cowed in soul, Truth's mandate to obey. 

Lo, in this world the little and the great 

Are given over unto lust and hate; 

Brahmin and splendid lord alike they be 

All steeped in sin and ancient misery. 

Again I say 'tis perfect Wisdom pleads; 

Those erring men repent them of their deeds; 

They know thy law to hearken and obey; 

Where couldst thou find thee better men than they? 

Nay even mid the bhunders overhead 

With sacred cowl of yellow and of red, 

The little ancients gadding in the trees, 

Where couldst thou find thee better men than these?" 

Said Brahmadatta: "Pariahs could greet 

Their equals in the purlieus of the street; 

But on my wanton queen comes vengeance now, 

Meteor swift, impeded by no vow. 

The seething of a cauldron I command." 

"Thou hast no proof! I pray thee hold thy hand. " 

"Proof!" said the king, "go ask the wind that blows, 

Whose bawdry mocks my name for friends and foes. 

He robbed her from me, who has robbed my good. 

So let her feel the pangs of widowhood!" 

"Hadst thou fair proof, 'twere thine to let her live. 

Virtue and royalty alike forgive." 

Then Brahmadatta's soul was like the field 

Of battle, where no warrior deigns to yield ; 

Under infernal banners Hate and Pride 

And domineering Wrath, vermillion dyed, 

Strove against Truth and Justice from above 

Wisdom and Mercy and Uranian Love. 

Then Brahmadatta's fury died away; 

For Self Renunciation gained the day. 



the queen's necklace 37 

By former vows of mercy unconstrained, 
A great forgiveness had his soul ordained. 
So to his conquering nobleness of soul 
Came Arhatship like fourfold aureole; 
In his mild aspect greater glory shone 
Than all the rubies of his royal throne. 
The new perfection all that Karma wills 
Outshone, as far upon the silent hills 
The splendor of the dawn turns twilight gray 
To burnished gold, in promise of glad day. 

After the master told the stories twain; 
One modern, one for days of ancient pain, 
He now as Buddha perfect upon earth 
Connected and identified the birth: 
"Behold how many lives men multiply 
Ere they the lust of earth may purify; 
Before the perfect insight we can find, 
How many lives our footsteps leave behind! 
The lord and brahmin were reborn in hell 
Where they revolving seons still must dwell; 
Ananda now was Brahmadatta then; 
And I, the recluse, loved of all good men." 



SEVERUS AT EBORACUM 
"Omnia fui et nihil expedit." 

Oh! draw the curtains away, and away with your 

honey in wine! 
I will have the lustre of day! I will have the glad 

sunshine ! 
I will have the wind of Britain blow over me as I lie 
Low by the great gods smitten in the pangs of my 

majesty ! 
For mine eagles are flown in their flight and the dreams 

of my power passed o'er 
And I stand on the borders of night as a child by the 

lone sea shore! 
Doctors and lords, give place, who abide till I cease 

to be; 
Yea! Leave us a little space, my wife and my sons 

and me! 
Julia, my wife divine, the stars of a Syrian sky 
Immutably marked thee mine in the orbit of Destiny; 
And the tumults of all thy tears are a final balm for 

the blest 
When, heavy with cares and years, I turn to a longer 

rest. 

Geta with Julia's brow; little Geta with eyes like 

mine ; 
And thou, Bassianus, thou, Bassianus and Antonine! 
Oh! I pray you love one another, I entreat your 

discord cease! 

1 pray you be brother and brother, and so may the 

realm have peace! 
Oh ! Life is all blurred with error and Time as a lame 
man runs 



SEV3RUS AT EBORACUM 39 

And the dynasty totters in terror at the discord of 

my sons! 
Though the legionaries were mine as motes in my 

brighter beams, 
Though I drave the people like swine as I dwelled 

in my hopes and my dreams, 
Like the all awakening sun over land and sea as I 

burst, 
My course was the happier run; for I was eclipsed 

and accurst; 
For Jove in the pitiless skies rains down on Promo- 

thean fire 
And sweet is the sacrifice of a human heart's desire! 
For I had no power to brave the bane of my marriage 

fruit, 
One boy with the soul of a slave and the other the 

soul of a brute! 
Thou Rome! imperial, immortal, with the blood of 

centuries imbued, 
Whose heart is a closed portal to the prayers of the 

multitude, 
Ye glorious world debaters, who turn for your latter 

joys 
To the blood of your gladiators and your curled Syrian 

boys, 
You eat and you drink for the day, and you dwell at 

ease in your lust, 
You sicken and die away, and the soul goes out in 

the dust; 
And of all mine eyes have seen, and of all my hands 

have tried 
And tested, I found unclean; for I knew in your hearts 

ye lied; 
For I knew your own black hate of me for a low-born 

man 
Who fathomed your vile estate, if only an African! 



40 MORALITY AND I^GEND 

And the tramp of a barbarous horde, the ravages 

wild and rude, 
The frown of a bestial lord, the shame and the servi- 
tude, 
From the plaster beds of thy brothels to the height 

of thy Pantheon's dome 
Shall come to thy last betrothals, thy dower, im- 
perial Rome! 
For the pride and pomp and treasure that Mars and 

Apollo have won 
Must go at my death to pleasure the soul of mine 

eldest son 
Who heartily hated his brother, more gently informed 

and reared. 
Ye heartily hated each other ere bulla gave way to 

beard; 
Hate for his boyish dreams and hate for his prattle 

and play! 
Unto you all gentleness seems a weak and womanish 

way; 
And like as the leopard and fawn, afire to fly and 

pursue, 
Or the darkness unto the dawn, my Geta hath hated 

you! 
In your anger you palpitate to look on his form from 

afar, 
And his heart is heavy with hate that he finds you 

what you are. 
Wherefore in violent ways, the gleaming edge of your 

hate 
Will dissever his younger days, and an empress desolate 
In her garment of sorrow, shall cry to the days of her 

latest breath, 
That or ever Severus die, ye gat not your meed of 

death; 



SEVER.US AT 3BORACUM 41 

For none in Pannonian land, at corn mill or quarry 

or plow, 
On the wide arena's sand or behind the galley's prow 
Or to wash the jockeys' feet that race for the red and 

the blue 
Could the Senate as Emperor greet, less worthy of 

rule than you. 

Julia! thy tears are in vain! O Geta! thy days 

are undone, 
Were Severus the Emperior slain, I cannot give death 

to my son; 
And I know that his hate will bring forth, unto mother 

and brother a foe! 

1 have flown like a flickering moth, up, up to my ruin 

and woe! 
'Twas vainly and fondly I thought your hate was a 

city growth 
And Folly upon you wrought in the purple of your 

sloth ; 
And I called you away from Rome as away from 

carrion vile, 
With me and my men to come afar to the northern 

isle, 
The isle of Britain, cliff bound and washed by a peri- 
lous sea 
Where billows and billows resound with the noise of 

a people to be; 
Where beyond the crest of the waves and the drift 

of the mist at morn 
Resound old ocean's caves with the music of realms 

unborn : 
For I deemed, in the land where the mist was an 

ambush to foes on the lea, 
On the cliffs by the sea wind kissed and the wild, 

white spray of the sea, 



42 MORAUTY AND LEGEND 

In trouble and toil ye might learn what folly to hate 

one another, 
And at last unto love to return and to be as a brother 

and brother. 
But the wild, rough life that is sweet to nourish the 

soul of the brave 
With the bitter of poison will eat at the heart of the 

beast and the slave. 
I parted you. Geta I left by the shores of the 

southern sea 
And of hope I was half bereft when you went to the 

North with me. 
We passed where the north wind wails on the walls 

of Antonine, 
Where the daystar earlier pales and the moons more 

tardily shine; 
We forded the wild morass where the water was black 

in the sun 
And Fever was fated to pass with the lives of my 

warriors won; 
And the breeze in the rushes breathed low to the 

naiades far beneath 
To uprise at the overflow and to carry us down to 

our death; 
And the painted tribes that met us, like frogs went 

far and wide, 
And the wind and the mist beset us and my men 

dropped down and died; 
Until on a final morn, by the Hebrides afar 
Where seagulls screamed their scorn, my litter and 

and gilded car 
Stopped still by the waves; and I rose and set my 

foot on the shore 
Where the north wind comes and goes and the breakers 

crash and roar, 
Against tall cliffs that stand, indomitable and forlorn 



SEVERUS AT KBORACUM 43 

At the end of the Roman land and the ocean's farthest 

bourne. 
The tide was all at the full for the stoled augur and 

priest 
To offer the milk white bull for the sacrificial feast; 
And the legions incessantly poured down from the 

rocks above 
Like the arm of another sea, as I prayed to ambrosial 

Jove. 
But the foolish feathered fowl before the sacred grain 
Turned away nor ate from the bowl and I read that 

omen plain. 
In the van of my retinue, as I rode at the dawn of the 

day 
Where the purple genesta grew mid the moss that 

covered the way 
And storm scarred rocks rose high and hemmed us 

on every side, 
I turned me about at the cry of my cohorts terrified. 
For stealing o'er moss and heather with a gleaming 

sword, I saw 
My boy and Murder together behind me: the foam 

on the jaw 
Of his charger; I gave one look; his horse stopped 

short; not a word 
I spoke; but his right hand shook as he fumbled 

with scabbard and sword. 
And the dreams of my power were broken, with the 

power of paternal love 
And I knew that the omen had spoken the will of 

an adverse Jove; 
And the terrible eagles that flew where the Senate 

and People had willed, 
Were passed as the winds that blew and their ardor 

of flight was stilled; 
Gone, like an old man's power and a lust all satiate, 



44 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

And the joy of a dying hour and the dust of departed 

Fate! 
And the crown of my laurel was rent and the robe of 

my purple was torn 
And all my paludement waxed thin and threadbare 

and worn; 
For Bellona had given me power to grapple the world 

in my rule 
And made me the god of an hour and given me the 

heart of a fool. 
Yea! bring me the porphyry urn, the temple of my 

repose, 
When dust unto dust I return and my soul to Orcus 

goes! 
When mine ashes are waxen cold as the fire that burns 

in my brain, 
Little urn, you then shall hold what the world could 

not contain! 
Rome! Rome! thou mother of strife, thy people are 

cruel as the sea, 
And hate unto all is their life and full of the hatred 

of me! 
Crowds in my judgment hall! they crowd me and 

crowd me around! 
Shall my throne be over them all and never sink 

underground? 
Give place, ye Scipios, place ye Metelli and Dolla- 

bellas ! 
For you all have Geta's face and you all have Cara- 

calla's 
And my throne goes down in your hordes like a cir- 
cling barque in the main 
And Rome and its peoples and lords will never rise 

up again! 
My Julia, bend low! bend low! for I sink and I sink 

away; 



SEVERTJS AT KBORACUM 45 

For I have been all things now and in vain hath been 

my day! 
And I pass I know not whither in a region dark and 

wide; 
I wander hither and thither with never a place to 

abide ; 
And all in the frozen night, down, down my soul must 

fall 
Where there is no love nor light nor any comfort 

at all! 
O Life is sweet at the end when all is manifest 
When we know where all things tend and there is no 

peace nor rest! 

Life and thy vain turmoil! I am fain we were 

never to part! 

1 love thee in sorrow and toil ! I love thee with death 

at my heart; 
For the suns of the world are bright and the skies of 

the world are blue! 
Ye gods who endowed me with might, give me one 

more deed to do! 



THE COURT JESTER 

OR 

The Souiv of Satire 

'T was in the golden days of old Provence 

When merry were the loves and dalliance; 

And of all days, forsooth the merriest day 

When bloomed these roses on the first of May 

And he o'er Aragon who erst did reign 

Took homage from the Duke of Aquitaine. 

Bravely the duke in mantle of the blue 

Strode at the head of all his retinue; 

So as he stepped upon the palace stairs 

Full solemnly, as nobleman who fares 

On weighty business, from the throne room out 

His ears were greeted with a mighty shout 

Of laughter, that the stone steps rang again. 

As he made entrance, unto him was plain 

Where neath a canopy with lions red 

On argent, with gold crown upon his head, 

With grizzled beard hale in his forty years 

Sate the good king, the first among his peers. 

And on the cloth of gold before the throne 

Save for the king at ease, reclined alone 

A fool in motley with a bauble stick 

While crouched a white wolf-hound his hand to lick. 

And all adown the triple arched hall 

The belted knights and the fair ladies all, 

The high and low, the noble and the vile 

Hand upon lip, were fain to hide a smile, 

Fain to gloze o'er their merriment and glee 

To do the duke a better courtesy. 

Out spake the duke as toward the king he came, 



THE COURT JESTER 47 

"Sire, I prithee tell me of this game." 

"Why my good Aquitaine," replied the king, 

"'Tis but a tale, a light and foolish thing, 

I cannot ape the words and manner well. 

Saint Barnabas, 'twere merry for to tell! 

Look at him there, sitting alone fore me, 

My fool! He tells the tale and only he. 

Look you, he starts, even as I name his name. 

Come, come Sir Folly, here's a merry game! 

Look you upon this man, my vassal he, 

His crest an eagle over land and sea, 

Whilst thou hast chosen with a fool's own art 

For thy device, of gules a bleeding heart! 

Look you, lord duke, he wears the silly crest 

Upon the purfiled sleeve and on the breast!" 

"Nay," said the duke, "the fool hath a sad face. 

Why doth he make for laughter in this place? 

Down at the mouth, the corners both be drawn; 

On the broad brow, deep wrinkles there be worn; 

And in the eyes there lurks a famished fire, 

As one who may not win his heart's desire. 

Is he your jester?" "Nay there is no rule 

To say that this or that will make a fool ! 

To you he may look grim; yet we all know 

Whene'er he opes his lips our lungs loud crow 

Like cockerels the courtyard walls between. 

We wot not of his dole nor of his teen! 

So! tell us, fool! you in all wisdom know 

How 'tis you make us laugh!" High on tiptoe 

The fool, upleaping, did a pirouette; 

Bowed low before the duke as one who met 

His master; rang his bauble with brass bells 

As who from town to town alarum tells. 

Then came his words, fast in a loud sing-song 

'Mid the low laughter of the courtly throng. 

"You ask me why 'tis given unto me 



48 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

To kindle your hearts in merriment and glee. 

I answer you that all my words be thus 

For you yourselves be all ridiculous. 

I, being a fool, am in good truth allowed 

To be the only wise man in a crowd. 

I therefore in my game, make mock at one 

Of you to show him what he is; and none 

Of all the rest in hearing of the half 

The story can do otherwise than laugh! 

I tear the man's whole heart out and I show 

The faults and foibles that he would not know 

In otherwise, and blame his virtues rare, 

Showing them vain and empty as the air. 

And you, like hounds to whom the master throws 

The leavings of the feast, jump up and nose 

About me. Ignorant of all annoy 

You wag your tails and slobber in your joy, 

All save the dog at whom I throw the bone. 

Him doth it catch between the eyes alone! 

Down drooping at the tail, he slinks away 

To yelp at other hounds another day, 

For his will come, and every — mother's son 

Will have his day, if only he have one! 

When you know well what curs each other be 

You yelp upon that knowledge greedily! 

The more ye know your comrade's ugliness 

The more ye love your knowledge and not less! 

At every stroke I feel you all to stir 

In admiration! Thus I minister 

Unto your lust that grovels in the dirt, 

The lust to see a fellow creature hurt! 

Amid your lives, sordid beyond all measure, 

In torture of the heart ye take your pleasure; 

To gall the place that is most sensitive, 

Watch the flesh quiver till you are twice alive, 

While gentle pity you are fain to press 



THE COURT JESTER 49 

Under the crust of your small callousness! 

To scoff and leer at what is noble and fine 

Liefer than to be drunken at the wine, — 

That is your sport, when you're not tourneying 

Or betting on the roosters in the ring 

Or playing hazard false as e'er you can 

Or making cuckhold of another man! 

And what makes all the game even more funny 

And all my words like thrice distilled honey, 

The most outrageous things I say of you 

Are on the whole most piteously true. 

For the one thing whereto ye all aspire 

That in your heart of hearts ye most admire, 

The goal that fleeter feet alone may gain 

Looms out of reach, beyond your toil and pain. 

In drudgery the days go by and they 

Lightened but little with your game and play. 

The shimmer of silk robes upon the stair, 

The lute attuned to drive away dull care, 

The banner bright that makes men's blood to run, 

The manly joust under the morning sun, 

Or when you be waxed old, yourselves to sit 

In chimney corner, there to try your wit 

On your grown son, his children and his wife, — 

That is the outer fantasy of life; 

But when beneath the froth you fain would see 

The waters, these are bitter as the sea! 

Though all your paltry pleasures may not lack 

Think but upon them and they vanish back 

To Limbo, and unless there's one loved face 

To irradiate the emptiness of space, 

The roses that are red, the grass that's green, 

The charger in the list, the spearpoint sheen 

Are all alike as pastimes to be tried — 

And still the soul remains unsatisfied. 

Would ye know more and would ye fondly turn 



50 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Unto the joys the parson calls eterne? 

These also, yea these also be as joys 

That ailing children clasp as painted toys! 

Because the loud Te Deum stirs the blood 

And through the jewelled windows in a flood 

Streameth the sun, you on the pavement feel 

That you before immortal glory kneel. 

Or kneeling at your priedieu, ye bid fair 

To take the titillation of a prayer! 

What are these joys eterne? Only the sense 

Pricked into pleasure all the more intense 

Because the kingdom that they glorify 

Is all a hollow mockery and a lie! 

Unto poor human nature toil and stress 

Are real and all the rest is emptiness! 

Love is not love but only love doth seem; 

Beauty is beauty only in a dream; 

Beauty alone in truth may beauty be 

Behind the veil of unreality. 

To you the more unreal because alsd 

Of beauty and truth there's little you may know 

Save that one truth full plainly you may see, 

You may not compass all you are fain to be! 

Ye lords in ermine and in minivere, 

Ye men in leather jerkins on the stair, 

Ye curled and essenced ladies proud, who lean 

To watch the fountains play, tall elms between, 

There's none who is not secretely at strife 

With some disaster that doth dwarf your life! 

The lord whose villains pine upon his fief 

And hath an ailing daughter to his grief; 

The lady wife who sits beside the board, 

Whose bosom swells in anger at her lord, 

Whose nuptial vows have branded her a liar 

Because her heart was lost on a young squire; 

The tire woman who hates her comrade's charms, 



THE COURT JESTER 5 1 

Whose hazel eyes capture the men at arms ; 

The comrade who her beauty carrieth 

Into the halls of Sin and Shame and Death; 

The doctor who for favor and for pelf 

Gives learning up to quackery and to self; 

The chaplain who to souls' confession goes 

To prate about a God he never knows; 

All, all alike in their unworthiness, 

That pitiable failure name success; 

And all alike down in the dust heap hurled 

Deem their vile selves better than all the world, 

Happy if hoodwinked for their whole life long 

Their neighbors only see how they be wrong! 

Only the total fool may happy be 

Who takes for truth his own hypocrisy; 

Who, even as God, under the Heavens' blue vault 

Smiles down to find his neighbors all at fault! 

His neighbors' be these futile frets and fumes, 

His neighbors be the daws in borrowed plumes, 

The fox without the tail, the trap within, 

The ass beneath the tawny lion skin. 

So, when your lies and follies I would air, 

And all your peccadilloes I lay bare, 

The little blemishes of one another, 

The mote beneath the eyelid of a brother, 

Ye curs do gather and do bark aloud, 

Apparently, indeed a merry crowd! 

Nay often at your own inanity 

Ye laugh and with your own faults make you free 

Because your sins the little and the great, 

Ye blame upon the world and unkind Fate, 

Ignorant that Justice lays the whole 

Of your ill deeds upon your willing soul! 

And all 's ridiculous in age or youth 

When as I make you see it as a truth. 

Of all dark truths under the sun or moon 



52 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Who tells the most will be the best buffoon!" 

He ceased, and sudden silence filled the hall 

Where he 'd abused not one, but all in all. 

And over all the tessellated floor 

They shrugged the shoulders where they laughed 

before. 
Unto the ladies turned the knights away, 
On the loud viol began the jongleurs play, 
Outside the door the guards spat on the stones, 
And the rogue pages played at knucklebones. 
Only the duke stood still and with his palm 
Smoothed the furred edge that kept his fingers warm. 
"Duke," said the king, "Think lightly of his pule! 
'T is but the babble of a madcap fool ! 
Ofttimes in bedlam doth that fool belong, 
Hardly worth good clean straw and leathern thong!" 
"Nay, sire," replied the duke," Your fool 's not mad. 
I have not hearkened to a tale more sad. 
If life is vain and strife alone be true, 
Why doth the knight ride forth to dare and do? 
Yet welcome we the struggle and the strife! 
If Pain be all our god, yet life is life. 
Also 'tis written in the stars above 
There is one woman who knows how to love! 
Sire, mine annual homage I would pay 
Ere Death to you and me give holiday. 
We are puppets in the game, both you and I, 
Our devoir still to do nor question why!" 
"Nay brother," said the fool, "at the hour when 
You in your coronet help your fellow men 
To fight against the lie for cause of truth 
You '11 give more joy than maiden unto youth; 
And all my wit will be like passed pain 
When Reason guide men's lives and Love sustain!" 



GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD 
(an eighteenth century broadside) 

Into the saddle and up we go 

Before the morrow of day! 
We are three good gentlemen ! tally-ho ! 

Upon the king's highway! 

To ride on the king's highway, boys, 
To ride on the king's highway! 
Tally-ho! tally-ho! when the cock doth crow 
We sleep on the break of day! 

'T is ten good miles to Brampton Heath 

And seventy miles to town. 
And there, the hills of Surrey beneath 

We are going to run them down 

For a thousand pounds and more, boys ! 
A thousand pounds and more ! 
At the hour of two, Lord Scroop is due 
To ride in his coach and four. 

Then tie the muslin o'er your face 

And prime your flintlock well. 
Your filly must go at a rattling pace 

To the toll of the midnight bell. 

Then fare thee well, my buxom Nell 
And landlord, fare you well ! 
You '11 know it before the day blows o'er 
A brand new tale to tell! 



54 MORALITY AND I^G^ND 

Gallop and gallop and on we go 

And spur the mettlesome bay! 
We are jolly good gentlemen, tally-ho! 

And well on our destined way 

Across the Kennet Burne, my boys, 
Across the Kennet Burne 
Where the coach and load on the Reading Road 
Must come to a good sharp turn ! 

To stalk the stag in covert wood 

Or ride with the hounds is tame. 
The kind of sport for a man of blood 

Is a hunt for nobler game ! 

My lord is going to court, boys, 
He and my lady to court 
And jolly are we, who gentlemen be, 
For a gentleman loves good sport. 

The light of the moon turns night to noon; 

The towering elms are near; 
Then hide and hist and patiently list 

The rumbling wheels to hear! 

Where the elm tree shadows play, my boys, 
The pistol brings to bay. 
Be sure not crowd her with too much powder 
To stop them on the way! 

Halt! halt! my lord! don't struggle with us! 

Don't let your fellows try 
To cock the loaded blunderbuss 

Nor gallop the horses by ! 

They never may onward roll, my boys, 
They never may onward roll 
Till we open the door of the coach and four 
To take a nobleman's toll. 



GENTLEMEN oE THE ROAD 55 

We've little time the words to broach ; 

My lord, pray let me pass. 
They are in the lining of the coach 

Beside the looking glass. 

Beside the looking glass, my lord, 
The small Venetian glass! 
Don't budge for your life, nor your lady wife 
Nor your saucy serving lass. 

I hope my jack-knife credits me; 

I've ripped the satin clean. 
Ah ! there the golden guineas be 

And the banknotes in between! 

And the banknotes in between, my lord, 
A thousand pounds between ! 
You '11 pardon our haste. 'T is very bad taste. 
Necessity makes us keen. 

Your double fob I now must rob; 

Your snuff box, too, my lord. 
Your diamond ring's a pretty thing; 

Be pleased to keep your sword. 

We never will take your sword, my lord, 
Never a gentleman's sword. 
Your money's a goner but not your honor 
And the dross you can well afford. 

My lady's jewels I must maroon. 

I have no time to spare. 
I trust that madam will not swoon. 

Hey ! bring her the brandy there ! 

Pour out the brandy there, my lord, 
And reach me the casket there ! 
The good French brandy is always handy. 
Make room for her! give her some air! 



56 MORALITY AND I^GEND 

Unloose her stays you pale-faced jade 

And stop your snivelling sound ! 
What! you afraid, and a lady's maid? 

Come, bring your mistress round. 

So bring the lady around, my girl, 
So bring the lady around. 
If you do your duty, my nut brown beauty, 
We '11 quit you safe and sound. 

We '11 only take a chaste salute 

And wish you all good day. 
Then lift the mail for us out of the boot 

And hey! bully boys away! 

Then hey, boys ! away, boys ! 
In silence, lads away! 
Hist! hist! yo-ho! and we go and we go 
To cover before the day. 

'T is leagues beneath old Brampton Heath 

And many a league from town. 
But the region where we take the air 

Will never have great renown. 

But the good old wine goes down, boys, 
Both port and sillery down, 
And a very good health to a nobleman's wealth 
In a quiet country town. 

The tradesmen take what money you make; 

The parson takes your wife; 
The barrister, he, your land in fee ; 

And the doctor takes your life. 

But we who are gentlemen bold, lads, 
Honest and gallant and bold, 
Enjoy the fruit of occasional loot 
Of silver and ruddy gold. 



GENTLEMEN OE THE ROAD 57 

And whether we ride the countryside 

Or high upon Tyburn Hill 
The world will know, wherever we go, 

By God, we are gentlemen still. 

We ride cross country still, boys, 
And live as the nabobs will. 
We are gentlemen born and we hold in scorn 
The plow and the trader's till. 



CAROUSAL 

Scene: A guardhouse. Drinking table, surrounded by 
men at arms, and serving women. Time: the mid- 
dle of the Sixteenth Century. 

MAN AT ARMS 

Give goodbye to care and sorrow 

And the welfare of your soul ! 
What care we for night and morrow 

All around the foaming bowl? 
What if Youth and Hope go sinking, 

Derelict for many a year? 
Still a clinking, still a drinking, 

We be all companions here! 

CHORUS 

Hear! hear! hear! hear! 
Jolly companions round their beer! 
Never too aged, never too stale, 
Jolly companions round their ale! 
All around the welcome bowl, 
Jolly companions, body and soul ! 

Then pass around the flagon, boys 

And strike another stave ! 
For many a man's an honest man 

And many a man's a knave; 
And many a man's a gentleman 

And many a man's a clown; 
But when a man is born a fool 

'T is ours to pull him down, my boys, 

'T is ours to pull him down! 



CAROUSAL 59 

Down! down! 

Knave and clown! 
That is the way we topple him down ! 

Down! down! 

If he wears a crown 
His folly alone will tumble him down! 
Tipple-topple ! tumble-rumble, 
Folly alone will make him humble! 

MAN AT ARMS 

In the burst of youthful powers 

Hugh was like a yearling foal 
Spurning at the pastured hours, 

Prancing fillies for his goal ! 
Guy to back the stallion, steady; 

Pons with partisan and bill; 
Rupert with the maidens ready, 

As with any gray goose quill! 

CHORUS 

So! so! 

Bend the bow! 
Feather a message to wing the foe ! 

Kill! kill! 

Bow and bill! 
That is the way to stick 'em and kill! 
Bill and bow and sword and targe, 
We are men at arms and the world is large ! 
After the brawl, we doubly dine 
And buss the wenches over the wine ! 

MAN AT ARMS 

How we roared it all together 

When a naughty page came plumed 

With a great white heron's feather 
From my lady's bower perfumed ! 



60 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Comrades all in jest and story, 

Life ! ah then, how life pulsed high ! 

Oh! the glamor! Oh! the glory! 
Deeds of arms and lover's sigh! 

Guy hath passed the Spanish borders; 

Gilbert begs upon the way; 
Hugh hath taken holy orders, 

Tells his beads, a friar of gray. 
Pons got gold ; his heart is callous 

And to former friendship rude. 
Rupert rides upon the gallows 

In predestined altitude. 

CHORUS 

Dearest friend ! 

That is the end ! 
There your merit and fate shall tend ! 
There 's the top of the goal to gain ! 
There 's ambition to attain ! 

People see 

How high you be 
Fruit upon the gallows tree ! 
At tolling of the dead men's bell 
You cut your capers fair and well! 
Whether you 're lean or whether you 're fat, 
You dance on the wind with a tight cravat! 

There on high 

The ravens fly 
And the carrion crow will not pass by! 
Soon you find your eyes and nose 
Torn away by carrion crows. 
Eyeballs, fingers, lips and ears 
Carried away for souvenirs! 

To and fro 

And around you go 



CAROUSAL 6 1 

Your body above and your soul below! 

Out and in 

And around you spin 
And Christ assoil you of your sin ! 

MAN AT ARMS 

Some have ta'en immortal trover; 

Some are passed beyond the seas. 
Then the bowl of life brimmed over; 

Now we taste the dregs and lees. 
Then a good girl's eyes were sparkling; 

Then the blood proclaimed the man; 
Ere our days began a darkling 

And the world was charlatan. 

Gather round us, all good fellows! 

Pledge the time when Youth and Spring 
Did not need the fire and bellows, 

But the wild fire on the wing! 
We have all, alas, been younger; 

But Old Age is not the worst 
When the whetting of our hunger 

Wakes the flame of lambent thirst! 

chorus : 

Thirst! Thirst! 

Never you durst 
Grapple us long, you burning Thirst! 

Thirst! Thirst! 

Ready to burst! 
Drink her down and kill that Thirst! 
All alike in hovel or court 
Thirst is long but Life is short! 

Only a span 

And the sands that ran, 
That is the Life of mortal man! 



62 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Mortal man 

Must clink the can 
When the world is charlatan. 
Clink the can and drink her down 
And let your memories all go drown! 

So pass around the flagon, boys 

And strike another stave! 
For many a man 's an honest man 

And many a man 's a knave ; 
And many a man 's a gentleman 

And many a man 's a clown ; 
But when a man is born a fool 

'T is ours to pull him down, my boys, 

'Tis ours to pull him down! 



THE DOOM OF MIDGARD 

The gods of Asgard dwelled in upper air; 
The sunlight blazed above their cloud-capped walls, 
Bridged o'er to earth with rainbows, everywhere 
Buttressed by giant crags. Below, their thralls, 
The sons of men abode where ill befalls 
And there was discord mid the sons of men ; 
Envy and hate, whose every motion galls, 
Gave way to blood and crime, and it was then 
Primeval oceans rose to whelm them once again. 

The monster of the deep rose from his lair 
To whelm the generations of mankind; 
Thor's foe, the Midgard Snake, with claws to tear 
And fangs to rend and ravin. Leagues behind 
Streamed forth the dragon's tail, whose scales would 

blind 
Any on them who haply dared to gaze. 
A fury's face, swart hair fast intertwined 
With shells and seaweed; and wild eyes to raise 
Despair amid the nations, trembling in amaze. 

So came the snake, encompassed with a noise 
Of myriad monsters, horrible to see, 
Who shrieked their hateful terrors and vile joys, 
Clotted with gore of all fair things that be. 
The kine at pasture and the woodland tree, 
The thrifty village and whole countryside 
Were whelmed in weltering death all utterly. 
The waters in his wake full soon were dyed 
Deep red with swollen corpses on that eventide. 



64 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

But while those grisly waters roared and surged 
Around the rainbow bridge and mountain's base, 
In Odin's burnished hall, the gods did urge 
Bach unto each their bright abiding place 
To guard against all harm. They, face to face, 
Pallidly made grave question for a boon 
To quell that onset. Whether 't were disgrace 
To parley with the foe, who, late and soon 
Rose, horrible to view, beneath the drifted moon. 

While these debated in the hush of night, 
Hugin and Munin croaked the drear night through, 
Ravens of Odin. Lo, his sidelocks white 
Trembled about his cheeks! His brand he drew 
Halfway from out the scabbard. "All too few 
My horde of heroes ! 'T were a hope forlorn 
To stem the onrush of that hellborn crew 
In doubt of darkness like our foes, hellborn. 
I speak, the great world-father. Friends, abide the 
morn." 

But when the morning dawned, the world lay dead 

O'er all that waste of waters — heroes bold 

And lovely ladies lowly ravished; 

And all alike the younglings and the old; 

And those whose pride ran high and those whose 

hold 
On human life waxed feeble, all lay low; 
And hearts once warm with hope, were now grown 

cold 
Alike to summer flowers and winter snow 
And mortal griefs that come and mortal joys that go. 

But o'er this waste of ruin, towering high 
Unto the gods who still be ruled by Fate, 
That face rose up against the shuddering sky 



THE DOOM OF MIDGARD 65 

To make the house of Asgard desolate. 
'T was no more time for warriors now to prate 
Nor in close council wrangle and delay; 
But all the gods, uprisen in proud state, 
Flashed forth in heavenly mail and bright array, 
Unmoved as double rainbow when the tempests 
play. 

Hard in the van pressed one of swarthy hue; 
A ruddy beard descended on his breast; 
The strongest god of all that retinue. 
Dark were his garments as the clouds that rest 
Till driven by the stormwinds o'er the crest 
Of towering hills. His iron mailed hand 
Brandished an iron hammer. From the west 
He turned and in a tone of high command, 
"Sons of bright Heaven" he cried, "the rest of you 
may stand! 

"Stand firm with grounded arms. My pastime here 
Is to fare forth alone against the foe; 
Whom once with hook and line, full many a year 
Agone, as o'er the sea my boat did go, 
I hauled from midmost depths. 'T is mine to show 
The powers of hell must vanquish first mine arm, 
Ere they can whelm in chaos of wild woe 
Our bright abode, arising from the charm 
Of power divine, unmarred by any power to harm." 

So fared he down the bridge, along the cliff, 
Right to the place where surged the raging main. 
Hammer on high and arm full stout and stiff, 
He smote that forehead and he smote again. 
Then grievous cries came forth of rage and pain. 
Full fain the monster was once more to seek 
The midmost ocean, dragging in his train 



66 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Troubles unnumbered. Down from peak to peak 
They surged. Against themselves, their fangs would 
vengeance seek. 

Against the wind, the victor faced the void; 
And his red beard streamed out across the sea. 
"Have joy!" he cried, "Old Evil is destroyed 
Who cast his coils about eternity!" 
"Never," the great waves thundered, "Shall that be ! 
Old Evil lives. Against thy hills and shore 
Again it rises in despite of thee, 
Scarred by thy blows but stronger than before, 
Whereby the gods of earth shall perish evermore!" 

And those insurgent seas swept back again, 
Bearing once more the monster in fresh might, 
Bearing the woes of ages in his train; 
And lo, once more Thor's hammer rose to smite, 
When Asgard's gate gave forth a blinding light 
As mid men's happiness, a nobler joy 
Revivifies the baser while our sprite 
Flames forth and purifies the gross alloy 
Of trivial bliss, whose sweetness of itself would cloy. 

So streamed the light from Asgard's lofty portal; 
For on its threshold stood a being of light, 
A stalwart youth, more fair than any mortal; 
With hair like rising sun's effulgence bright, 
Adown his ample shoulders, richly dight 
In azure; at his throat a brooch of gold. 
But none might look upon his face; the sight 
Was all too fair with beauty manifold. 
Against his knee, an aureate harp that youth did hold. 

With smoke and flame and poison, breathed fierce 
The snake. The embattled gods would fain recoil; 
For vain was brand to hew or dart to pierce; 



THE DOOM OP MIDGARD 67 

And greater grew the terror of that broil; 
When sweet uprose over the harsh turmoil 
The voice of Balder on the threshold there, 
Who sang as never sang poor men who toil 
Nor maid at maytime ever sung so fair. 
Alone his music stilled the tumult on the air. 

He sang of plenty and he sang of peace 
And the brave days when hate shall have an end; 
Amid the sons of men all fraud shall cease; 
And all man's rule, the love of friend for friend. 
And all men's wills in harmony shall blend, 
With never any selfish wile to see. 
While crowned over all, gray Time shall spend 
Full gently there his days; for all are free 
And none shall mar what draweth to eternity. 

While thus he sang, the shoaled monsters cried 

In dreadful agony, full harsh and loud 

At first; then feebler as they drooped and died 

And all their horrid heads were lowly bowed; 

Until at last, slow changing like a cloud, 

He who engendered all the lesser woes 

Drooped with swart head down sideways, once so 

proud 
In his fell triumph — now like melting snows; 
At last like trodden worm, his belly to disclose. 

Once more the hand of Balder swept the strings 
In melody the whole wide world might hear; 
As if the spirit of life in all sweet things 
By mountain peak and forest, year by year 
Echoed a mother's love, the moan and tear 
Of bearing pain, turned to a greater joy — 
The love abiding death, that laughs at fear. 
There is no future can her love destroy, 



68 MORAUTY AND LEGEND 

Whispering: "My dear, I trust you, for you are 
my boy!" 

Full soon the silent horror on the ocean, 

Of livid hue, like pestilence, I wist, 

Bubbled and steamed and mixed in wondrous 

motion, 
Purple and black and changeful amethyst; 
Then all at once dissolved in a mist 
That overlay the waters all at rest; 
And this did pass. Full soon the breezes kissed 
Waters clear green, like seas beyond the west 
That soothe in peace eterne the islands of the blest. 

Then over all that green, transparent main, 
Once more the harp was vibrant and the voice 
That called on humankind in nobler strain 
And bade the generations to rejoice; 
For everything in nature hath its choice, 
The cave born beast, the crawling worm below, 
And all winged creatures in the air that poise, 
And the clear stars that in their orbits go, 
All, all through whom the tides of being ebb and flow. 

He sang a song before the night or day, 
Older than time, before the world was young; 
How one soul finds another on the way, 
Like two sweet instruments together strung; 
Like dulcet echoes, hills and dales among, 
Wandering together, evermore beside; 
One, sturdy as the oak in norlands sprung, 
One, bountiful as palm in desert wide; 
Together evermore, betide what may betide. 

He sang of man and woman, ever joined 

In that sweet bond, no change may ever strain, 

How both shall thrid the mazes of the mind 



THE) DOOM OF MIDGARD 69 

And wrest Earth's happiness from Hate and Pain; 
How he grows stronger still, Life's bliss to gain; 
And she more strangely subtle. For the stress 
Of that stern struggle, he must court amain 
To dare and still to dare and win success; 
And she their lives to crown with truth and tenderness. 

Her glance dispels the shadows on his face, 
With radiant beauty all the heavens above. 
Upon his breast, she finds her resting place, 
Whispering: "I trust thee, for thou art my love!" 
Thence grew the nations mighty; once who strove 
In rivalry of hate. Now all is done, 
Ruled by that triple law that still doth move 
Friend unto friend; the mother to the son; 
And lover to beloved, forevermore at one. 

While, flushed with joy, the victor carolled out 
Loud melody for all glad gods to hear, 
Back sank the circling waters roundabout; 
Far in the east, fresh verdured hills did rear 
Their dripping heads ; the steamimg earth grew clear 
Of slime and sordor; for the smiling sun 
Engendered grass to sprout and flowers to peer 
And birds to sing and beasts to creep and run; 
And a new morning for the world was there begun. 

For Hate, fell despot of the past, lay dead; 
And all the world was hale and glad and free; 
And a young race, in joy of lustihead, 
Uprose. Their terraced homes from sea to sea 
Shone white through vine and budded almond tree, 
Olive and silvery myrtle, Beauty's crown; 
O'er fields of golden grain with windswept lea 
Narcissus blown, those cherished homes looked down 
More fair than bright abode of Odin's long renown. 



70 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Evil was dead and nevermore to be. 
As sun-bright Balder gave his music o'er 
Immortal hearts throbbed with new melody; 
Man's paean of boundless joy that more and more 
Swelled jubilant below from farthest shore 
To Asgard's towers of bliss. Odin on high 
Hands unto mouth in trumpet wise he bore; 
And over all the world went Odin's cry; 
Word of a new born Hope that nevermore shall die. 



THE HARROWING OE HELL 

A MYSTERY 

' ' Venit ergo Dominus ad internum superiorem .... 
ut redimerit captivos a tyranno . . . Vinctos vocat, qui 
erant in poenis, alios vero in tenebris, quos omnes ab- 
solvit et in gloriam duxit rex glorias." 

PROIvOGUS 

Behold the grisly gates of Hell, 
Where Beelzebub and Satan dwell 
And damned spirits know full well 

The fruit of Satan's lies; 
But in these outer courts, behold 
God's chosen from the days of old 
Who wait His promise long foretold, 

When they with Christ shall rise. 
All round the dim, low vaulted space, 
Behold full many an upturned face, 
Lit from within by God's own grace, 

As stars at midnight glow. 
Hell's viceroy with his meiny there, 
Draws nigh to them as devils dare, , 
His crafty face lit by the glare 

Of the red flames below. 
And all the devils roundabout, 
Within the courtyard and without 
Even as the blessed angels shout 

Hosannah in their song, 
So they below and all around 
Wild cries to Beelzebub resound; 
And Hell re-echoes back the sound 

Unto the Lord of Wrong. 



72 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

HYMNUS AD BEELZEBUB 

Hail thee, dark prince! We cry thee hail; 
Before thy banners, all men pale; 
Nor tears nor gnashing teeth avail 

Nor Man's most desperate word. 
There is no easement for his pain. 
The worm shall bind him like a chain, 
Let human anguish all in vain 

Beg respite from the Lord. 

BEELZEBUB 

Whence comes this light upon my gates 
Whose purple glamor violates 
The darkness of my ancient states 

With dreadful orb of gold? 
In naming caves, like whirlwind's voice, 
The damned legions all rejoice. 
My ears are deafened by their noise; 

Mine eyes can scarce behold. 

ADAM 

Light of Life! O Love divine! 

In Eden's greenery thou didst shine 
Before the snake on me and mine 
Wrought shame and toil and woe ! 

ISAIAS 

He comes, Messiah, anointed one, 
As I foretold in Zebulun 
And Naphtali, bereft of sun 
Beyond the Jordan's flow! 

JOANNES BAPTISTA 

A voice from out the wilderness, 

1 cried; and now in Hell's duress 



THE HARROWING OF HSU, 73 

I cry once more! He comes to bless 
Man's miserable state! 

Lamb of God! O Star of Day! 
Ye gates of Hell his nest obey! 
Prepare ye for the Lord, his way 

And make his pathway straight! 

SATHANAS 

1 come instead, who victory 
Have gained. My mortal enemy 
Is crucified on Calvary, 

Jesus of Nazereth! 
I crowned with thorns His royal pride; 
I thrust the spear point in His side; 
A man of sorrows, He hath died; 

For Sorrow leads to Death. 
He raised the dead, in spite of us; 
He gave back life to Lazarus; 
For flouting of our kingdom thus, 

Fore God, we served Him well! 
Let the five Marys, moaning, lave 
The limbs that angels could not save; 
For Death and I have made His grave 

And haled Him down to Hell! 

BE3L,ZEBUB 

Thou sayest once He raised the dead, 
And never a prayer to God was said? 
What think you of that lustihead 

Above your might and mine? 
I do adjure thee by our power 
Bring Him not here upon this hour 
Lest thou and I should captive cower 

Before His wrath divine! 
Up! up! and bar the gates again! 



.! 



74 MORALITY AND LEGEND 

Make fast the iron doors amain! 
Go! reinforce the goblins twain 
Who guard them, Death and Sin ! 

DAVID 

Rise up, Messiah, where Adam fell! 
Lift up your heads, ye gates of Hell, 
Ye everlasting doors as well; 
And let the King come in! 

HYMNUS SANCTORUM ET PROPHETARTJM 

Who bears the red cross banner bright? 
Who treads afar the realms of night, 
Irradiant as the morning light 

Upon resounding seas? 
'T is Christ the Saviour, Christ the Lord, 
Victorious in His works and word! 
O save us from these pangs abhorred 

And cursed tyrannies! 

JOANNES BAPTISTA 

Before the gate the Saviour stands; 
Loud groans this wilderness of lands; 
The dismal doors at His commands 

Shriek and asunder go. 
Loud crash the chains and bolts and bars 
With riven rock and splintered spars; 
And o'er the gulf the wrathful stars 

Peer proudly down below. 

DAVID 

His frown is like the lightning fleet; 
He casteth Sin from off her seat; 
The dragon writhes beneath His feet. 
My prophecy fulfilled! 



THE HARROWING OF HELL 75 

DIABOU 

Art Thou invincible to pain, 
Man, born of woman without stain? 
Thee blameless we acclaim again, 
Even as Thy Father willed. 

BEELZEBUB AD SATHANAN 

Thou fool and traitor to thy cause 

And mine; who broke the Lord, His laws; 

And thought to drag Him in the jaws 

Of Death forevermore! 
Behold, He comes and tramples thee, 
Unto thy pregnant infamy; 
And sets ten thousand sinners free 

That were thy right before ! 
Why hast thou this one crucified 
Who blameless lived and blameless died, 
Whereby a million woes betide 

Both thee and all thy host? 

SATHANAS 

I nailed my Foeman on the cross, 

I sealed His body in the foss 

And though my triumph turned to loss, 

My pride is still my boast! 
But more than this my heart doth grieve 
That ye should tremble and believe 
Who still His vengeance must receive, 

Ye doubly cursed brood! 
But shall I bow beneath His rod? 
Shall I abase me at His nod? 
I, reckless of the wrath of God, 

Forever unsubdued? 
I hold and keep a constant mind. 
'Tis I have cunning yet to bind 



! 



76 MORALITY AND I^G^ND 

The generations of mankind, 

Who followed Adam's fall. 
Gleam the red fires for mile on mile 
And torments upon torments pile! 
I captive, I abject and vile, 

Am greater than you all. 

MORS 

Undying Glory from on high, 
Against Thy cross my dart flew nigh 
But could not strike. Lo! therefore I 

Thee welcome on this day! 
'T is joy to know Thee, joy to hear 
Annihilation waiteth near 
When, symbol of a crowned fear, 

My power shall pass away! 

PECCATUM 

Well mayst thou prate, thou Lord of Death. 
To all in pain who draw their breath, 
When the creator beckoneth 

Thou comest at His word. 
Thou dost His work. But I — but I — 
The living semblance of a lie, 
My very soul doth horrify 

This coming of the Lord. 

SATHANAS 

O daughter mine, take heart of grace! 
The Son of Man must yield thee place 
To roam on Earth a little space, 

Until the final doom! 
When thou returnest here to dwell 
With those, alive who loved thee well 
The adamantine vaults of Hell 

Shall hardly find thee room! 



THE HARROWING OP HELL 77 

HYMNUS SANCTORUM ET PROPHETARUM 

Lord Christ, Thine oriflame is set 

In Heaven! On Earth Thy cross shall get 

Glory; and here the hour is met 

To raise Thy cross once more! 
Yea, in the depths Thine ensign show 
That, by the portent all may know, 
In nether Hell, Thy glories go 

Where Death has gone before! 
Through Hell's abyss, resounds Thy word! 
Old Adam clasps Thy hand, O Lord ! 
We hail Thee, all with one accord 

Redeemer of mankind! — 
Arise, ye saints! arise and sing 
Uplifted as on eagle's wing! 
Round sun and moon our plaudits ring; 

And Hell-Gate flares behind! 
Joy to the world and all who weep! 
Sound the loud timbrel o'er the deep! 
Behold the mighty mountains leap 

And clap their hands and shout! 
Beyond the dome of raptured skies 
We tread the meads of Paradise. 
Behold the New Jerusalem rise 

With jasper walled about! 
\ 

ADAM 

Whence come ye, O unblemished twain! 
Whose limbs have never known Death's pain, 
Whose radiant faces bear no stain 
Of any ill desire? 

ENOCH 

I walked with God on Earth. I stand 
In Heaven's bright bliss. 



.1 



78 MORALITY AND U5GEND 

ELIAS 

At His command 
I rose from Jordan on the strand 
In chariot of fire. 

JOANNES BAPTISTA 

What manner of a man art thou? 
Under the cross thy shoulders bow. 
Thy face is like a thief; thy brow 

Is agonized by Time; 
Thy hands and feet all wried and torn, 
Why dost thou greet this happy morn? 
Why art thou thus in Heaven reborn, 

A man of grief and crime? 

DIMAS 

I was that robber, crucified 

On His right hand. Before I died 

To Him I clave; on Him I cried, 

"O Lord, remember me!" 
Beyond the grave, by Goddes fay, 
I drag my cross on Heaven's high way 
To dwell in Paradise for aye 

With Him who died on tree. 

HYMNUS SANCTORUM ET ANGElyORUM OMNIUM 

Hope of the world, immortal power! 
Fruit of a nobler Eden's bower! 
Child of the pure, white lily flower 

Baptized in Jordan River, 
When heaven and earth shall pass away 
And Time no more hath baneful sway 
And night shall be as dawn of day 

Thy love endures forever! 



The harrowing oe heu, 79 

And Thou, Celestial Trinity, 

Thou Three in One and One in Three, 

Unbounded by eternity 

By whom the world is bound! 
Drawn from the grave, beyond Death's pall, 
We praise Thy name at festival; 
Our adoration all in all, 

While the nine spheres go round! 

IN NOMINE 

Patris ET Fuji ET Spiritus Sancti 

FACTUM EST LUDUM 

AMEN 



MELUSINA 



MELUSINA 

A TRAGEDY 

Dramatis Persona 

Lord Lusignan 

Raymond, His Son 

Don Damien, a Chaplain 

Carmagole, a Jester 

Raoul 

John 

Frank 

Charles ) Fishermen 

Peter 

Andrew 

Lady Lusignan 

Adele, betrothed to Raymond 

Berta, a Nurse 

Ursula ~) 

Jeanette V Fishwives 

Marianne J 

Melusina 

Lords and Ladies, Men-at-Arms, Servitors, 
Fisher-Folk and Spirits of the Sea. 

Scene : the Coast of Brittany. Time : the Sixteenth 
Century. 



84 MEXUSINA 

ACT I 
BETROTHAL 

Scene I : The Great Hall in the Castle of Lusignan. 
Walls and ceilings are draped in gala. At the left, a 
Gothic doorway, surmounted by the family device, a syren 
argent on a field of azure. In front stands a sentinel on 
guard. Time: the night of Shrove Tuesday. 

Enter Raoul, Berta and Serving Women. They 
crowd about the sentinel. 

FIRST WOMAN 

The doors all closed? 

SECOND WOMAN 

Betrothal doth belong 



In open hall! 



THIRD WOMAN 



God grant there's nothing wrong! 
The County Guy is lauded everywhere 
And Heaven's bounty bless the bridal pair, 
Raymon, the good earl's son, Adele, his ward! 
But still there be strange rumors noised abroad 
Of the black magic! Aye, 't is that I mean. 
I speak no names. 

RAOUI, 

You speak of Melusine. 

second woman {crossing herself) 
You dare to speak her name? 

THIRD WOMAN 

Only three days 
Ago, a poor old charcoal burner says, 



BETROTHAL, 85 

In forest far beneath the living shade, 

Where, on the fitful noon, a fountain played, 

He saw the sight. Through dazzling water flashed 

What first he deemed a fish, that splashed and splashed 

O'er moss and rock and vine. . . But, drawing near, 

Before his eyes a spectre form did rear, 

Hands, head and breast, a radiant woman, dight 

Below the waist with tail of blue and white, 

All diamond enamelled, scale on scale. 

Behold our colors! 

RAOUI, 

'T is an ancient tale. 
A learned clerk wrote the whole matter down 
In an old book of very high renown; 
And there be princes, emperors and kings 
Proud of her lineage and all it brings. 
From her three lordly houses draw their day, 
As Luxembourg, Rohan and Sassenaye. 
Beside Lord Lusignan, whom now we serve. 

GUARD 

And who a loyal silence doth deserve. 

FIRST WOMAN 

A fabled fantasy and bogey show! 

Why, she was dead three hundred years ago! 

BERTA 

Speak not so lightly; for old people say 
She but departed like a fading flame. 
They say, along the bottom of the sea, 
There 's no more dying, for old age is dead; 
And there she dwells in palaces of pearl 
Amid the souls of drowned mariners, 



86 MELUSINA 

In crash of nightly revelry for aye 
And baneful beauty of a youth eterne. 

SECOND WOMAN 

When comes the bridal? 

RAOUI, 

After close of Lent 
In forty days. 

FIRST WOMAN 

I trow, behind closed doors? 

GUARD 

In open chapel, fore the eyes of all. 

FIRST WOMAN 

Short time to serve a lady ! 

SECOND WOMAN 

All too long 
Before the consummation of true love. 

BERTA 

Aye, all too long for any Lusignan 
To bide on his betrothal. Mark my words, 
Old Evil comes at midnight. Mark my words, 
There's evil omens in these marble halls. 
A cloudy night . a very evil sign! 
Aye, flout and sneer and say an old witch dreams! 
(noise of storm without) 

God in Heaven, have pity on poor souls! 

1 hear the woman's moaning once again! 

GUARD 

The moaning of the wind, old Berta, come! 



BETROTHAL 87 

BERTA 

The moaning of the years of long ago ! 

God rest unhappy creatures! O the day, 

The dreadful day the Lord Raymond was born! 

I see the pallid face, I hear the voice! 

I hear the shrieks of torment on the night! 

Aye, call me mad old Berta if you will ! 

God grant it were my madness! 

SECOND WOMAN 

What's the matter? 

RAOUL, 

Poor soul, her heart is fevered with a dream 
That came upon her twenty years ago. 

Enter Carmagole and Don Damien 

DON DAMIEN 

What 's all this idle gossip at the door? 

Have ye no reverence your lords before? 

For shame! for shame! what may such manners mean? 

GUARD 

Your reverence, all did talk of Melusine. 

CARMAGOLE 

The riddle of the Lady Melusine — 
I '11 tell you, I of Melusina's rede. 

DON DAMIEN 

Peace to your words, idle as thistledown! 

FIRST WOMAN 

Is then the tale portentous? 



88 MBlvUSINA 

DON DAMIEN 

Idle waste 
Of time, old woman's horror! let it go! 

RAOUI, 

Let him go on! let him go on, I say! 
The idle tale befits the idle hour 
The better. 

WOMEN 

Tell the rest! Let him go on! 

CARMAGOLE 

When the black cock at midnight crows three times 
In silent space between the midnight chimes; 
When Firmin's bells the Lenten season greet 
At midnight and the triple peal repeat; 
When an old dame brings trouble in the room; 
And when the bride shall question of the groom; 
Then, for love-longing of an earth born lord 
The Lady Melusina walks abroad 
And draws disaster unto maid and man 
And ruin to the house of Lusignan! 
(sounds of music) 

FIRST WOMAN 

The doors burst open! viol and flageolet! 

Hark! hark! they come! the guests! the bridal train! 

carmagoi,e (to Don Damien) 

God rest your Reverence, 't is no time to fret, 
Nor no faint heart must here remember pain ! 

THIRD woman 
Lord Raymond, doth he know the idle rhyme? 



BETROTHAL 89 

DON DAMIEN 

He, you and I and all the parish too! 

SECOND WOMAN 

Hist! hist! they come! 

WOMEN 

We dance upon the time! 
All hail Lord Lusignan, his retinue! 

Enter musicians and a chorus of youths and maidens, 
followed by lords and ladies. 

SONG FOR THE ENTRANCE MUSIC 

There is rapture in the viol! 

How it thrills, thrills, thrills! 
There is rapture in the lilting 

Of the hautboys' trills! 
There is rapture in the bosom 

Of thy loved one nigh ! 
Oh! enjoy the tuneful hour; 

For the time goes by! 

There is rapture in the music, 

In the time, in the tide, 
To greet the happy trothal 

Of a sweet young bride! 
Fresh crowned with opening roses, 

Lo, her cup brims high! 
Oh! enjoy the fragrant hours; 

For the hours go by! 

Come forth ! come forth ! O promised bride ! 

Resound again 
Loud music ! hail the bridgegroom ! 

Hail the lordly train 



90 MELUSINA 

To drown her bashful whisper : 

"Dearest, come to me! 
O fain and fair and tender, 

To be loved by thee!" 

The glory of the moment 

And the joy supreme 
Is fleeter than the splendor 

Of the Morning's beam ; 
More fleet than driven seabird 

O'er the wine dark sea, 
But worth the weight of aeons, 

To be loved by thee ! 

Enter Lord and Lady Lusignan with Raymond and 
Adele. Flourish. 

Alyly 

All hail the promised bride of Lusignan! 

lord lusignan 
We welcome the glad hour to greet your loves. 

usher {announcing guests) 

The County Blois and Lady! Comes my Lord 
Of Coucy! Comes the Cardinal of Rennes! 
The Dowager and County Perigord! 
My Lord of Bourbon, Constable of France ! 

carmagole 

Announce me to my gossip, yellowstick, 

Before them all, the grand climacteric! 

Behold at bridals, Folly leads the van. 

Announce me a good fool and a true man. 

In Life's glad prime, ere Age men's blood can cool, 

I, good and true, most truly am good fool. 



•BETROTHAL 91 

(to AdELE) 
Why wearest thou white silk? 

RAYMOND 

For Purity- 
Is white. 

CARMAGOLE 

So are men's lies and both well wove! 

ADELE 

I hope some candor yet becometh me. 

CARMAGOLE 

Like any other opposite of love. 

(sings) 
White and red! white and red! 
Love is born and Love is dead ! 
Red and white ! red and white ! 
When her beauty is most bright, 
Red and white together be — 
And that, for Love and Purity ! 

(snaps fingers) 

LORD LUSIGNAN. 

Have the fool whipped! 

ADELE 

Nay, pass his folly o'er, 
Though contumelious, I, my lord, implore. 

DON DAMIEN 

Let 's leave him to digest his own bad words. 

ADELE 

I wish him no worse pain. 



92 MELUSINA 

RAYMOND 

How say you, lords 
And ladies? Lo! the hours of night advance 
And the loud music summons all to dance. 

FIRST LADY 

The dance! the dance! my feet be on the move! 

SECOND LADY 

More than the fool, Lord Raymond entertains. 

FIRST LORD 

'T is the world's way, when hearts beat high with love 
And Youth more sweetly sings than yon sweet strains ! 

SECOND lord 

The dance! the dance! come forth the joyous dance! 
The music calls! the torches flare! and round 
We go! 

FIRST LADY 

They burn more bright! 

RAYMOND 

Let's all advance 
To bathe our souls in oceans of sweet sound ! 
And round and round in rhapsody of joy, 
We dance in wild abandon, girl and boy ! 

(they dance) 

SONG 

Dance, dance away! 
The viols play! 
Forget to-day and yesterday! 
Dance, dance around 



BETROTHAL 93 

To that sweet sound 
And taste the joy that comes with May ! 

Oh ! fair betide 

The blushing bride, 
Her lord and servant at her side ! 

To bride and groom 

Give dancing room 
When Love is to be glorified! 

And to and fro 

The couples go 
In many and many a measure, O! 

With damsels merry 

Whose cheeks are cherry 
And shining bosoms white as snow 

There comes a call 

Throughout the hall 
For faster music over all; 

Around and around 

In a whirl of sound, 
Wild soul of wildest festival! 

Scene II: A window embrasure. Wind and rain 
are beating on the casement. A silver lamp, wrought in 
syren shape, sheds its light over silken hangings of sea 
green with a crimson shimmer, on which is depicted 
the story of the first Lord of Lusignan and his spouse. 
Raymond and Adele are together on an oaken settle, whose 
sides are carved in the image of a mermaid. Music and 
dancing in the hall beyond. 

ADELE 

Now all are gone, my darling and my lord, 
My fairy prince, with roving eyes and hair * 
Of raven ! Thou, thou and I — 



And forty days 



94 MEIvUSINA 

RAYMOND 

Delay! 

Dost dread, me joyful at thy side, 
To wait on final joy? 



RAYMOND 

A month and more? 
I dread it. 

When each little moment holds 
So much of sweet, so much of every joy, 
To taste the whole of it, were gluttony 
Indeed. Let's treasure it like epicures 
And sip it kiss by kiss and so love on, 
Where every little makes a little more. 

RAYMOND 

Adele, as I do kiss thy crimson mouth, 

My soul takes fire! Perish the forty days! 

The Lord of Love knows neither space nor time ! 

Jove sets no boundaries to his eagerness! 

Open thy hazel eyes! their tender gleam 

Fulfillment cannot fathom! Forty days! 

Let us have all, all, all! Ours then to die 

Or let Love grow in radiant loveliness 

For years on splendid years! But this brief space, 

These forty days are forty centuries, 

Worse than God's storm that overwhelmed the world 

For vengeance on mankind! Thy lips again! 

O love my love, I know not any joy 

But thee and the gold glory of thy hair, 

Thy sweet soft red and white, thy curling lip 



BETROTHAL 95 

Where kisses lie like honey in the rose, 
So sweet and yet so strange! 

ADEU3 

Yea, passing strange 
That thou and I from babyhood have grown 
Together, and together played at ball; 
Together conned the painted missal o'er, 
Adam and Eve embowered in Eden's green; 
Together loosed the tiercelet for the kite 
And the gerfalcon for the trembling hare; 
Together read of Launcelot of the Lake, 
His love for Guinivere, until our curls 
Over the page were tangled, black and gold — 
All this in fellowship of girl and boy. 
But here and now I view thee all in all 
As I had never dreamed of thee before, 
Iyike some young pagan god from kindlier skies, 
In thy glad glory, Fancy never feigned 
For maiden dreaming! Yea, 't is passing strange, 
This other thou, who wast a friend before 
And now a lover! 

RAYMOND 

Nay, 't is no more strange 
Than wise Adele, who lets her little heart 
Cozen her soul to make a god of me, i 
Poor mortal, restless in his discontent, 
Who cannot brook the passing of the hours! 

ADBI/E 

Raymon is aught amiss? 

RAYMOND 

Those forty days. 



96 MELUSINA 

ADELE 

Those all alone? 

RAYMOND 

Impatience were enough. 

ADELE 

Truly is there naught more? 

RAYMOND 

Oh! credit me 
That Lent is long I therefore do complain. 

ADELE 

Let 's do away with all dark frowning care; 
When thou art moody, Raymond, that makes me 
Unhappy too. 

RAYMOND 

Why dearest, what may now 
Trouble the little lady, doth she deem 
Her Raymond doth not love her more than life? 

ADEU3 

Not more than secrets, or they else were told. 

RAYMOND 

Why, 't is a very slight, unworthy shade; 
I would not tell thee lest it trouble thee. 

ADELE 

Raymdn, wouldst call me baby? come, my love! 

"I would not tell thee lest it trouble thee!" 

Thou dost not well to hide a little woe 

From thy dear love. This heart were more than frail 

Could I not bear a little pain for thee. 



BETROTHAL 97 

RAYMOND 

But love, it is not all a little thing. 
It is — 

ADELE 

A menace? Some dark, heinous deed 
That makes thee clench thy teeth and clench thy hand 
And frown on vacancy? Why, then, dear love, 
Men say we women are too curious; 
And yet, and yet, my heart, I love thee so 
I know thou knowest what is good to tell 
And what to leave untold. Ra}^mon, my lord, 
Kiss me once more. Hark to the chime of bells. 
(bells without) 

RAYMOND 

Adele, Adele, thou stirrest in my soul 
Unfancied raptures! O thou noble soul! 
True nobleness in woman! 

ADELE 

Is to love. 
O golden chime of old Saint Firmin's bells, 
Our last Shrove Tuesday! 

RAYMOND 

Aye, our separate last. 
Once more to kiss. Good night! 



ADELE 
So soon? 

RAYMOND 

Is midnight soon? 



Thou leavest me 



98 M^IyUSINA 

ADELE 

Again that frown 
And set resolve. Thou shudderest. Thou must go. 
An if thou must, why so, my lord, good night. 
I '11 find the way to my apartment now 
Most readily. 

Enter Berta 

For here's old Berta come, 
Ready to guide me. 

BERTA 

Aye, my pretty bird. 
There is no sleep to-night for thee nor me! 
My Lord Raymon, on peril of thy soul, 
I charge thee, give it over and not go. 

RAYMOND 

I stay too long. Old woman, go thy ways. 

BERTA 

Thine follow worse than death! 

ADEEE 

Raymon, doth she 
Know all the secret chambers of thy soul 
And not thy promised bride? Is Love to be 
Blind, blind forever? Love, thou dost not well. 
I would not know thy heart for anything 
If all were common rumor. Raymond, lord, 
Thy soul is troubled even as my soul! 
Oh! tell me all! 

RAYMOND 

Why, now 't is time to part. 



BETROTHAL 99 

Unclasp the little fingers, thus and thus. 
I told the woman nothing. Bide thou here. 

ADEL3 

But she knows all! I cannot understand. 
Why dost thou bar me from thy last embrace? 
Where dost thou go? Why wilt thou not confide 
In me? That hesitation! Out, alas! 
Is this the man who stole my heart from me? 

BERTA 

Oh! chide him not! 

RAYMOND 

I never told her aught 
Nor any one, but — 

ADEUS 

Therefore tell me now! 
{bells again without) 

RAYMOND 

The second peal! Again Saint Firmin's bells? 
Why, that is all unwonted! 

Enter Don Damien 

Ha! Don Damien, 
Why now this repetition? 

don damien 

When Saint Firmin 
Founded our fabric, centuries ago, 
He made the rule, that every hundred years, 
Foundation night the brethren should observe, 
That once again for every hundred past, 



I OO MEL,USINA 

They ring the midnight peal. Two hundred years 
Are now gone by. Wherefore the triple peal 
Rings wonder in our ears. 

{aside to Raymond) 

I come to thee 
Fair son, to pray thee venture not abroad 
To-night. For though these all be idle tales 
And superstitions fit for village boors, 
These dying embers of old heathendom 
Let die, nor fan them into lambent flame 
By any act of thine. Lord Raymond, son, 
I pray thee tell me that thou wilt not go. 



I must and will. 



RAYMOND 



DON DAMIEN 



I pray thee think again 
And grant my prayer. 

AD£I,3 

No need to whisper more. 
My heart and soul have heard. Thy retinue, 
Priest and old dotard know thy works and ways; 
But not thy bride, too fond to trust in thee! 
May God forgive you! 

{turns to go) 

RAYMOND 

Stay, my ladylove! 
Wilt thou forsake me with an angry word? 
Little thou knowest the anguish of my heart! 

ADELE 

Aye, when from me that anguish is debarred; 
But any groom or scullion reads it there! 



BETROTHAL IOI 

DON DAMIEN 

Daughter, there be grave reasons. 

ADELE 

Reasons! aye! 
When I^ove is sick and wounded, overborne, 
Why, then 't is time to reason! 

BERTA 

Foolish girl ! 

Raymdn, an, thou dost love me tell me all. 
If not, farewell. 

BERTA 

You ask of him your doom. 

RAYMOND 

Hush, mother, hush! 

DON DAMIEN 

You know not your desire. 

ADEI.E 

And if I knew, I would not ask it here. 
Raymond, if thou dost love me — 

RAYMOND 

If thou wilt — 

BERTA 

O fatal question! 

adele 

Love doth mock at Fate. 



102 MELUSINA 

RAYMOND 

Why, then as I do love thee, I must tell. 
(bells again without) 

ADHhH 

So thou art willing, love, 't is more than all. 

BERTA 

Ask for his silence, then. You've proved him true! 

Nay, then as I do love thee, I will hear; 

And these old women shall not cross our loves. 

RAYMOND 

It is an ancient custom of our house, 
The eldest son, upon his bridal eve — 

DON DAMIEN 

My son! 

BERTA 

My lord, beware! 



ADEI.E 



RAYMOND 



My love, tell on! 



Leaving the dance and midnight festival, 
Should pace alone upon the lone sea shore 
And turn his glances westward o'er the sea, 
Thrice calling on a power invisible 
To answer for his marriage. Furthermore 
If he did tell his ladylove the cause 
And time and place of his departure, then 



BETROTHAL, 103 

His bride must be a widow on the noon 

Of that sweet night that sealed their marriage vows. 

Sorrow for her and ruin for the power 

Of Lusignan; and as all omens point 

To some such ending, I had left the tale 

Of brutal superstition all untold, 

As not to mar our loving festival 

Nor bring foreboding on a night of joy. 

ADEEE 

Dost thou believe? 

RAYMOND 

Adele, am I so dull? 
Do I believe in Bogey or in Lob 
Who lies by kitchen fires at Halloween? 
Who milks the kine and scares the dairymaids, 
Sours the milk in churn, blows out the candle 
For grandam and Jack Goodman? Nay, my love 
These are but empty rumors, idle tales. 

ADELE 

If these be empty rumors, idle tales, 
Then why go forth to-night? 

{cock crows) 

BERTA 

One omen more! 
God grant it 's not the black ! 

ADELE 

Stay, let us laugh 
At browney men and spectres of the sea! 
If thou goest forth, thou dost confess their power ! 



104 MELUSINA 

RAYMOND 

It is — it is our custom. 

ADEUS 

Let it go, 
Belief and custom too. When one hath died, 
The other follows to dishonored grave. 
Hark to the moaning of the wind outside! 
The storm blows wild. I pray thee, bide with me. 

RAYMOND 

After belief is gone, the custom bides 
And we observe in incredulity. 
Dearest, I — I — there came a call for me 
And I must go. Farewell. 

{Exit Raymond. Cock crows twice..) 

ADEI/E 

Raymdn, oh! stay! 

BERTA 

It is the final omen. 

Enter CarmagolE with a black rooster under his arm 

don damien 
Carmagole, 
Why comes that sound unusual at this time? 

CARMAGOLE 

Why, Gilbert Firebrand wagered Pothouse Paul 
The ruddy rooster in the guard-room hall 
Could spur the black, Sir Sable Chanticleer. 
We drew the list. Behold the champion here! 
For after peck and spur and squawk and clack, 
The red lay dead. We hailed the victor black 



BETROTHAL 105 

Who flapped exultant pennons on the air 
And crowed out victory at midnight prayer 
And — look you now, I am indeed a fool ! 
Why, there 's an omen ! Raymond my good lord, 
Is he not here? 

DON DAMIEN 

Gone, gone, you well know where. 
I follow. 

CARMAGOLE 

And I too follow. 

ADELE 

And I — alas 
Can this be true? O miserable me! 
Why do our motions spur to headlong deeds, 
We must repent, or ever these be done? 
Raymdn, Raymdn ! I '11 go beyond Death's doors 
To share all fates with thee! 

carmagolE 

Lady, good night. 
[Exit. 

DON DAMIEN 

Abide thou there. Lord Raymond comes anon. 
Thine to abide in honor of thy lord 
To greet his kinsmen. 

[Exit. 

Enter Lord and Lady Lusignan 

LADY LUSIGNAN 

What! the promised bride 
In tears alone with parson and old nurse? 



106 MELUSINA 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

Raym6n, where 's he? 

BERTA 

Gone, gone! 

ADEEE 

He 's gone away 
A moment hence. He will be back anon. 
He — 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

I commanded him, who disobeyed 
And followed. 

ADELE 
Followed where, good father dear? 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

Nay, that I cannot tell thee, for to hear 
Would bring thee sorrow; yet I would my son 
Were back again; but naught can be undone. 
It booteth not; and what can fears avail? 
I know there is no truth in that old tale. 
I know there 's nothing. Get we to our beds 
Lest on the morrow all be sleepy heads. 

Enter the Guests who take ceremonious leave 

SONG OF DEPARTURE 

There is slumber in the music. 

Deep it thrills, thrills, thrills 
From the lutany and dulcimer, 

For all men's ills. 



BETROTHAL 107 

And it lies upon Love's eyelids, 

When the hour draws nigh 
To the soul of sweetest roses, 

That they droop and they die. 

There is slumber for all feasting, 

And the torch burns pale. 
Yea, the flames are ever fading. 

They must faint; they must fail; 
And sorrow all upcloses 

And the cares that blight. 
Now Love with Life reposes 

Mid the dreams of night. 



ACT II 
UNDER THE OCEAN 

Scene I: The Breton coast in a rising storm. At 
the left, a ledge of rock juts out into the water. Time: 
Ash Wednesday, six hours before sunrise. 

Enter Carmagole and Don Damien. 

CARMAGOIyE 

Raymdn, dear lord! ahoy! ahoy! ahoy! 

DON DAMIEN 

Ahoy! thy bride awaits thee! lord, return! 

VOICE 

Ahoy! ahoy! ahoy! return! return! 

DON DAMIEN 

His voice! 

CARMAGOLE 

Or devil's counterfeit. 

DON DAMIEN 

Ahoy! 
Art thou in peril, Raymond? Tell us where. 

VOICE 

In peril. 

DON DAMIEN 

In grave peril? 



under the ocean 109 

VOICE 

In grave peril. 

DON DAMlEN 

A rescue, then! a rescue! where art thou? 
Far? 

VOICE 
Far, far, far! 

CARMAGOI.E 

Come, brother, come! Let's on. 
Talk to the winds no longer. On, ahoy! 
Religion goes with Folly hand in hand, 
To save the souls of men. 

DON DAMIEN 

Our own liege lord! 

[Exeunt. 

Enter Raymond enveloped in a mantle 

RAYMOND 

The billows rumble and the billows roar 
And crash to hissing phosphor on the crag 
And hurtle backwards, seething in fierce foam! 
Is this a night for bridals? What is this 
That drags me forth on my betrothal night 
To seek the unattempted and unknown? 
Adele, Adele! but half an hour gone by 
The world was like a garden of sweet years 
Where hope and joy were like full throated birds, 
Thou, thou and I forever side by side! 
But there 's another demon in a man 
That drives him forth from happiness and ease 



IIO MEXUSINA 

And all secure conditions, for the night 
Of nameless horror, strife and troubled years, 
Fiends faces and hard hatreds, treacheries 
And all the fears and dark desires of man 
And most unheard of tortures of the mind — 

VOICE 

And beauty, fairer than thy fondest dreams. 

RAYMOND 

Who art thou there? I call thee once again. 

Who art thou there? I call thee twice and thrice. 

Who art thou, riding free on yon black cloud? 

VOICE 

I am the spoken fate of Lusignan. 

RAYMOND 

You speak in riddles. 

voice 

Riddles may be read 
By those who have the craft and heart to dare. 

RAYMOND 

My marriage, what of that? 

VOICE 

Oh! follow, follow! 

RAYMOND 

Where wilt thou guide me? 

VOICE 

To my bowers of pearl. 



UNDER THE OCEAN III 

RAYMOND 

Which way to go? 

voice 

Thy feet shall know the way 
Better than thou. Walk even as thou wilt, 
Thy steps end there. Abiding in thy place, 
Thou still shalt find thee at thy journey's end. 

RAYMOND 

The wind calls and the sea! I come, I come 
Unto the memories of an elder home. 

{he approaches the rocks) 

VOICES 

The cavern yawns in the light of the moon; 

The foaming breakers roar; 
The seaweed hangs in a black festoon 

To drench the walls and floor; 
And over the noise, beyond the light 
Abides the spirit of endless night. 

RAYMOND 

Is it here that I must enter, where the waves 
Surge like damned souls? 

voice 
Aye, thou hast gone aright. 



I may not enter. 



RAYMOND 



VOICE 



Only cowardice 
Recalls thy bosom's duty. Enter here 



112 MElvUSINA 

And break with custom, habit and belief 
And maiden Shame, with veiled, averted eyes. 

RAYMOND 

Say all thou hast for me! I '11 walk no more. 

VOICS 

I ' ve no more words, only a sign to show ; 
Then follow, follow me. 

RAYMOND 

By boyhood's pride 
And manly love and honor, I '11 not go. 
On one side looms unutterable desire; 
On the other, holier memories and the vows 
Of knighthood, I '11 not go. 

voice 

Thy knighthood's vow! 
What are these words against a heart's desire? 
Now, now it grasps thy heart. Are all men's words 
Proof against this? 

( A flash of lightning rends the clouds and reveals for 
an instant, the form of a woman, robed in black and girt 
about with crimson seaweed. ) 

RAYMOND 

I may not, will not go! 
What form is thine to ravish and appall? 

voice 
The world's desire that conquers all men's fears! 



UNDER THE OCEAN II3 



RAYMOND 

I — I — alas — alas — 

VOICE 

Oh! follow, follow! 

VOICES 

On the verge to hesitate, 
Doubly craven, t 'is too late. 
Where the sea doth ebb and flow, 
There the troubled soul must go. 

(a flash of lightning followed by complete darkness) 

RAYMOND 

Into the brine! the waters wash me in; 
Legions of devils laugh upon the seas; 
And one swart wave, more horrid than the rest, 
Takes me up! All is white! O for the shock 
And darkness of the cavern! Woe is me! 
Adele farewell! and Brittany farewell! 
And happy hopes and joys of love, farewell! 

VOICES 

The coward fain would hesitate 

But nevermore the brave; 
Who doth respond for any fate 
At Melusina's cave. 

Spirits of the blast! 
Spirits of the wave! 

We hold the lover fast 
To torture or to save! 
For who shall fear 
To venture near 
Is whelmed in the salt sea wave; 



114 MELUSINA 

But forward fare 
To do and dare 
Shall find and bind a slave. 



Scene II: Under the sea. A dim light glimmers 
amid the waters of the lower ocean. Gradually, as the 
opening song proceeds, the shadowy vast becomes trans- 
fused with a golden radiance. A rock hewn chamber is 
revealed. At the back, a number of rough steps lead up 
to an arched door of panelled mother of pearl. At the 
right stands a couch, covered with some translucent, silken 
substance. The walls are hung with all varieties of bright 
seaweed. Goldfish, moonfish and delicately tinted aca- 
lephs are swimming up and down; and these, catching 
the light on head and sides, irradiate a thousand chang- 
ing colors. 

VOICES 

How sings the sea, 

The music of the waves, 
Sweetheart, for thee 

Mid palms and coral caves; 
Low, languid sound 

That dies upon the shore, 
Far from rocky bound 

Where the ravined breakers roar. 
Here the water lisps at last 

On a charmed strand, 
Deadly peril overpast, 

Heart's desire at hand. 

Enter Raymond 

RAYMOND 

How green the water shines about me here; 



UND£R THE OCEAN 115 

And that sweet light that inly is diffused, 

Where doth it come from? Lo, the fish that swim 

With film of lazy fin and gleaming tail 

And all their colors mingled in the sun, 

Lucent and interfused and changing still 

Bven as glad creatures change about me here 

That fall and rise and sport in spiral whorl 

Over the gypsum floor. Come, Rest and Peace, 

After the storm and wrench of head and heart! 

Farewell, thou Breton seacoast, far away 

As yesterday. There whether to return 

Or still abide me here in peace and joy 

I know not, I. So here as on a couch 

On the soft seaweed, gay as autumn leaves, 

Ephemeral in gay splendor, I lay me down; 

And view the cause and front of this sweet light. 

For over against me, up three steps rough hewn, 

There gleams an oval door of polished pearl 

Lucent with massy lock of burnished gold. 

And O the petals of anemones 

Around my feet. Yea, here I lay me down 

Nor care for other places, other joys 

And the fair faces of departed loves 

And all old things forgot, or memories 

Cherished the more for being in the past. 

Mayhap these all return as one looks back 

At parting from the thought of his beloved 

Frail with the poignancy of vain regret 

The soul hath half forgotten. Drowsiness 

Steals over me. So let me sleep away 

All trace of what was former toil and pain 

And unrequited yearning and the quest 

For what the troubled soul could never find. 

So let me leave them all and sleep, sleep, sleep. 

(Reclines on the couch in slumber) 



Il6 MELUSINA 

VOICES 

We travel afar 

From the southern star 
Where the sun kissed coral gleams 

And over the main 

They cast their seine 
To fish in the sea of dreams. 

The lover is come 

To his island home 
And the distant coral shore; 

And all in glee 

Down under the sea, 
We dance our queen before. 

The cymbal clashes 

The water flashes 
In torrents of gold and green; 

And we whirl and we whirl 

In the halls of pearl 
In the sight of our glorious queen. 

OTHER VOICES 

We dance to the lilt of a measure 
Ne'er footed in realms of the sun; 

Where Pain is the leman of Pleasure 
And evil and good are as one. 

Fair fame cannot harm you nor hurt you, 
Nor Pride in his palace of ice! 

Here purity may not be virtue; 

Nor the flaming of passion be vice! 

Awake to the sound of the morning! 

Awake from the torpor of night! 
Awake for our queen is adorning 

All ocean with splendor of light! 



UNDER THE OCEAN 117 

Awake unto beauty supernal 

For every light moment that flies! 

There 's never a joy that 's eternal. 
In the bud or the blossom it dies. 

Awake in a frenzy of kisses 

On her lips and her eyes and her hair! 

On her mouth is the promise of blisses; 
Twin roses her bosom doth bear. 

She holds out her arms to her lover; 

Oh! clasp her and know thou the place 
Where the joy of the sense goeth over 

In desire of a lasting embrace. 

OTHER VOICES 

Her bosom, fair and warm, 

A perfume doth exhale 
Like summer gardens ere the storm 

Of bleak autumnal gale. 
All the sweets and spice of the East 
For the eyes and the heart and the soul to feast! 

Enrobed in ever shimmering white, 

She yearns to you. 
Like sunbeams o'er the ocean bright 

Her limbs burn through; 
All the curve of breast and side 
In trembling beauty glorified. 

ALL THE VOICES 

Awake! awake! 
She standeth at the door 
More fair than any mortal bride! 



Il8 MELUSINA 

She yearns to greet you at your side; 
She treads the golden threshold o'er; 
And the music of our harps, the sea caves shake 
And our clarions resound: "Awake! awake!" 

Raymond {opening his eyes) 

What are these sounds that linger in mine ears, 

Insistent, loud and joyous, interfused 

With subtle sweetness that intoxicates 

And thrills from head to heel, so sweeping o'er 

That I nor feel nor see for eagerness? 

{The doors of pearl swing open; 

Melusina appears in a burst of light) 
Thou blinding light dissolvest walls and floor 
In dreams all realized of young desire, 
Resplendent, yet unearthly; strange and fierce 
As men have deemed hell fire; yet secure 
From ancient pain! 

{starts to his feet) 

Oh! let these arms embrace 
Thee, lady standing godlike mid the storm 
And vortex of intolerable joy! 
Who art thou there? 

MELUSINA 

'Tis Melusine revealed. 
And I have called thee far from Brittany 
To dwell within the fastness of my sea 
Where trouble stirreth not, nor barren strife 
Nor aught of that ignoble commonplace 
That makes life baneful in men's happiest moods. 
I give thee to my realms of boundless joy. 
In every sense thy being is fulfilled. 



UNDER THE OCEAN II9 

RAYMOND 

Melusina of the raven hair 

And royal rounded breast and eyes of gray, 

Whose deeper light wells up and fires the soul 

With madness unto thee, O beautiful! 

The godlike arm, the flushed and supple thigh, 

The undulation and the ecstasy, 

The beauty grave men worshipped ere the world 

From innocence and rapture turned again 

To servile morals. Clasp thee closer still, 

Breast unto breast all trembling with desire! 

Breast unto breast subjected all in all, 

Till current answers current and takes flame 

And two lives multiply! My pulses beat 

Even as thine! Yea, once embracing thee, 

1 clasp the world and all the lights and shades 
Are merged and mingled in a rainbow light 
Irradiating gladness to mankind! 

O sweet, sweet, sweet! our virtue doth combine 
To give an added glory to the world! 

MELUSINA 

The world is thine! O, tr}?- thy bliss again! 

RAYMOND 

Art thou immortal, being all beautiful? 

MELUSINA 

All beauty is immortal. Only Pain 

Dies. Pluck the rose, ere Sleep thy senses lull. 

RAYMOND 

Once more, once more, O thou for transports made! 
Lips unto lips and more than eyes can see, 



120 MElvUSINA 

The nameless loveliness that doth pervade 
Thine every motion! 

MELUSINA 

All possessed by thee! 
I yield me, ever changing, changing ever! 
Too sweet to last, a sweeter doth succeed; 
And every little moment, I/Ove must sever! 
Hither and yon they fly, nor give them heed! 

RAYMOND 

Oh! strive with me to mingle body and soul! 
The clinging lips on inner lips set fast! 
Within our veins volcanic oceans roll! 

MEUJSINA 

Oh! never was a moment like the last! 

RAYMOND 

I would it were eterne! 

MELTJSINA 

Not once again 
That joy shall ever dawn on thee or me. 

RAYMOND 

To-morrow's light shall find us laced in twain 
And gild our slumbers underneath the sea. 

MELUSINA 

Nay, love, not so. I nevermore may come 
As I have found thee now. In different guise 
We '11 meet again. 



UNDER THE OCEAN 121 

RAYMOND 

No better for the change. 

MELUSINA 

Better or worse, the change is yet to come. 

For joy or grief, to-morrow's not to-day. 

We, while the tides of ocean ebb and flow, 

May meet and love in many a wondrous wise; 

For we can change to seafowl, circling o'er 

The sunlit billows of the swollen main 

What time black clouds, that break upon the morrow, 

Give over to gray dawn and troubled day. 

We, flying still before the raging gale, 

May love as in a storm; or diving deep 

Below the foam and thunder of the waves 

May flash like serpents, ever interwined 

In dark, unshaken depths of ocean; 

Or, changing in those depths like two sweet streams 

That course the bed of ocean side by side 

And brave his brackish fury hardily, 

Still keeping side by side; or like two winds 

That chase each other, eddying in a storm, 

One, stern with all the portents of the north, 

One, soft with orient balm of summer seas; 

Still, still to move over the ocean foam; 

Still, still to love in ever changing love 

Forever in the passage of the world! 

RAYMOND 

But nevermore to see thee beautiful, 
Thy form, thy face? 

MELUSINA 

One of a million more. 
I hold no form, forever to remain 



122 MEI/USINA 

Iyike monumental marble that thy gaze 
Grow weary with the selfsame loveliness, — 
The same light in the eyes, the same old tale 
Of kisses on the lips, and laughter too 
That rings the selfsame peal, until thine ears 
Ache for the vety sound of novelty 
That cometh not to thee nor any man 
Who sets his rest on loyalty of soul. 

RAYMOND 

But nevermore to see thee beautiful 
Beyond all other women? Only as birds 
That dart and soar above the troubled waves; 
Or streams below the round of ocean, 
Where all is gray as with primeval eld 
Save for the glimmer of serpents as they wind 
Along the oozy bottom? 

MELUSINA 

Nay, sweet love! 
Wherever Ocean washes on the shore 
In lisping tides, or drives and crashes on, 
By Polynesian reef or Arctic floe, 
Wherever Ocean thunders, is our home. 
So, swift ascending on the sea-ribbed sand, 
We still endue us with the forms of men; 
As on the burning sand of the Red Sea, 
I, formed like swarthy Arab, white enveiled 
And thou a noble knight of Christendom 
To do me knightly service! 

RAYMOND 

Wondrous deeds 
Against proud paynim would I do for thee 
And for mine honor. 



UNDER THE OCEAN 1 23 

MELUSINA 

Nay, my love, not so. 
There is no honor. Only the strong arm 
And subtle brain. Honor 's a harlot's lie 
That fools may do more reverence to the brave. 
There is no honor for the doughty wise. 
My heart's own fire, why wrinkle up thy brows 
In that dark frown? So! kiss it all away. 

RAYMOND 

Kiss ! there 's no honor more for thee nor me ; 
But leave these lands of paynim. 

MELUSINA 

Let us leave 
Arabia and fare forth on Hadrian's Bay 
Where crowned Venice rises o'er the wave 
With fairy pinnacles and golden domes 
That glitter o'er the green of her lagoon 
And opalescent gold of sunset skies; 
But we at eve will float on her canals, 
I, a grand lady in my gondola, 
And thou, my chaplain, seated me beside, 
Thy breviary lying on thy knee. 

RAYMOND 

Well learned in holy writ and charity 
To all men. 

MELUSINA 

Nay, dear love, 't will not be so. 
There is no charity by land or sea. 
Only a fool, who deems him great of soul, 
Scatters a largess of his garnered gold 
And calls the slight diversion, charity. 



124 MEIyUSINA 

There is no charity, save in the dreams 

Of dolts and gulls. I '11 have thee priest for love. 

Thou, as the sun sinks down upon the bay 

Below the rondure of Salute's dome, 

Wilt hold my hand and whisper words of love 

That float abroad upon the evening air 

To mingle with the music of the day 

Slow dying, loath to fade upon a scene 

So fancy strange and lovely over all. 

RAYMOND 

Comes glory too? 

MEXUSINA 

We '11 play at kings and queens 
Grand lama, pope or anything thou wilt, 
So that we stay in hearing of the sea. 

RAYMOND 

Then, lovely Melusina, soon to change, 

For now I view, down gulfs of drowsy hours 

The advent of false dawn. Love, is it not so? 

Kiss me once more! Once more the strange embrace; 

Though languid now, as dying in our joy, 

More lovely for that languor. All forgot 

Honor and charity and virgin love. 

Take this, this, this; and rosy fingered sleep 

Doth close the silken fringes of our eyes. 

When shall I find thee farther? 

MELUSINA 

Ere Sleep lulls 
Thy senses, name thou me the time and place 
And what thou wilt become and what shall I. 
Say me the word. 



UNDER THE OCEAN 1 25 

RAYMOND 

Why then I choose — I choose — 
I knew her once. She was my little bride 
Of Brittany, all tender, pure and true. 
And when we spoke on summer afternoons 
Of love and all the promise, her soft cheek 
Was all ablush! But now 'tis all gone by. 
She would not greet me if she saw me now; 
She'd mourn me as one dead before his prime. 
Honor and charity are all forgot. 
With both her maiden breast was girded round. 
Oh! but I loved her, more than heart can tell! 
Beyond the dreams of beauty all men prize! 
Come thou to me like loved and lost Adele. 
Meet me to-morrow in that maiden guise. 

meuusina 

Fool! fool! thou knowest not what thou sayest! Ha! ha! 
The fool would have me maiden! 

RAYMOND 

Ivike Adele. 
Meet me to-morrow on the Breton shore 
like her, my heart's desire. 

MELUSINA 

Waves, do your work! 
Come forth, ye sleeping demons of the storm! 
Sweep in! 'Tis the command of Melusine. 

CHORUS OF DEMONS 

Smite with brine and lightning fire 
Him who belies his heart's desire! 
Ho! for the howling of the wind! 



126 M3LUSINA 

Smite ! ye spears of the icy blast ! 
Let the ravening whirlpool find 
Him whose love is doomed to last 
When desire is overpast! 
Smite him, water! and smite him, wind! 

Let the fool in folly be shent! 
Terror before and Torture behind, 

The bolts are broken, the doors are rent! 
Ho! for the orgies now to begin! 
Turbid, turbid we all rush in! 
Snatch him and tear him! rend him away, 

Of virtue and vice neglected spawn! 
Here is a toy and we '11 play, we '11 play! 
Rack him abroad till comes the day, 

In thunder comes the light of the dawn 
And the clouded rack and sleet and hail! 
Raise the billows and raise the gale 
Where the cliffs are lone and the dawn is pale! 
There, mid the piled ruin and rack, 
Seafowl, fish and timbers of ships 
Shivered and rent; and clammy lips 
That show where the seaweed is loose and slack, 
Fling him, fling him away on the shore 
Over the crash and the breakers' roar, 

Over the swollen waters green! 
Fling his body away on the sand! 
The sea will not have him, nor yet the land! 
Let him lie with the waters in between 
To and fro 

With the tides to go 
Who angered the Lady Melusine! 

Come away! come away! the ocean roars! 

And never the wild waves wait! 
Away from combers and beaten shores! 

Away! for the hour grows late! 



UNDER. THE OCEAN 1 27 

And, down in the ravening depths of the sea, 
'T is ours to stir the tempest's glee 

Ere yet the hour goes by! 
Ravin and rend! ravin and rend! 
We fling the waves on high 

And the foam, it dashes 

Ivike fire it flashes! 
Ravin and rend! ravin and rend! 

Glory and Hate 

In the realms of Fate! 

Destroy and destroy 

Is ever our joy 
In change without an end! 



ACT III 
DAYBREAK ASHORE 

Scene I : The Breton coast at dawn. On the extreme 
left, a crag juts out above the beach and overhangs the sea. 
The force of the wind has somewhat abated but the waves 
are running all the higher. 

Enter Carmagous and Don Damien, dishevelled and 
drenched with rain. 

DON DAMIEN 

Ahoy! ahoy! ahoy! 

CARMAGOUS. 

No more! no more! 
By towering cliff along the lone sea shore 
Behold this very spot we started from 
To follow devils' ditties all night long. 

DON DAMIEN 

This very spot? 

CARMAGOLE 

Aye, 'tis the Devil's Mount. 
Why, brother, even thou must know that name. 
Men say there 's a huge cavern there below 
The jutting crag, which like a giant's jaw 
The fury of this tempest everhangs. 

VOICE OP RAYMOND 

Melusine! Melusine! no more! no more! 
Lord, let them give these torments o'er. 



DAYBREAK ASHORE I 29 

DON DAMD3N 

His voice at last! God save him and preserve! 

CARMAGOLE 

Amen! that was his voice ! At last I heard. 

DON DAMIEN 

Raymdn, can this be true? Art thou suborned 
To some fell sprite, existent in the sea? 
Yet will I save thee if men's prayers can save 
And strength be mine to win to yon dark cave! 

CARMAGOLE 

Wouldst climb the crag? Thou stumblest even now. 
'T is help for us and him. Get thou and I 
Back to the castle. 'T is the only way 
To save Lord Raymond! 

DON DAMIEN 

Yea, we learn from fools 
Our own blind zeal! Poor mortals, weak in all 
But charity. Back to the castle, ho, 
To save Raymdn! It is God's will to go. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene II : The same. The dawn is growing brighter 
over the cliffs. Occasionally, above the roaring of the 
waves, can be heard the groans of Raymond. 
Enter Andrew, Ursula, Jeanette and Marianne. 

URSULA 

Sure, 't is a misery, all the lonesome night 
To walk and walk; for sleep will never come 



130 MELUSINA 

When John and my boy Peter go for herring. 
Why did they not come back? 

ANDREW 

Poor fools! poor fools! 
Now don't you cry. We '11 find 'em right enough ! 

MARIANNE 

Aye, for the sea doth always give his dead. 

ANDREW 

I say we '11 find 'em and we surely shall ; 
So don't you cry, you Marianna, you! 
I tell you there's no danger. 

JEANETTE 

None for you 
Who stays among the women when it rains 
And tells 'em not to be affrighted! You! 
A horseshoe crab were better help than you, 
Stuck with his tail a sitting on the sand. 
You cast-up jelly-fish, where is our dearies? 
Out on the raging waters ! and you says : 
"We '11 find 'em soon!" 

MARIANNE 

Find 'em at Judgment Morn ! 

ANDREW 

Find 'em with Davy Jones for all I care! 
Find 'em yourself! Here I comes out at night 
Because you women worrit me to come; 
And now I get your curses that I came. 
One calls me blob and one a horseshoe crab 
Soon as I speaks of comfort! That 's the way 



DAYBREAK ASHORE I3I 

Of women. High and low, they 're all the same. 
The little and the lean, the fat and broad 
Was put on earth to harry up the men 
Ready for Satan. Don't you hear that noise? 
There be your sweethearts and your dearies both. 
They 've landed on the other beach and now 
They be a shouting. Hi! haloo! haloo! 
We 've been a seeking you the whole long night 
Out of our warm, snug beds! Can't you come here? 

VOICE OE RAYMOND 

Help! help! Oh! help! 

Where be you? 

VOICE OF RAYMOND 

Let me die! 

ANDREW 

living or dead, we want to find you out. 

Where be you? Can't you answer to the words? 

VOICE OF RAYMOND 

Are j you the devils still? 

MARIANNE 

Poor soul, poor soul! 
He thinks we 're devils ! 

JEANETTE 

Sure his wits be gone. 

ANDREW 

He 's got his brains. He '11 not have nothing wrong 



I32 MELUSINA 

With him! A sound and seasonable brain! 
He knows a woman and a woman's ways. 
I guess he knows a thole-pin from an oar. 

MARIANNE 

It sounds just like your Frank. 

JEANETTE 

That 's not his voice; 
It 's much more like your Charles. 

MARIANNE 

My husband, marm, 
Would never speak of women in that way. 

ANDREW 

How do you know, if not behind the door? 

Come, come, old girls! cheer up! no more of this; 

Here comes a louder shouting. There 's your Charles 

And there 's your Frank and John and Peter boy; 

And all of 'em a-coming o'er the cliff! 

See 'em dark red against the morning sky! 

Glory to God! 

URSULA 

I knew they 'd come at last, 
Come home to mother! 

MARIANNE 

See old Andrew there! 
He's glad enough for all we devils be! 

VOICES OE FISHERMEN 

Ahoy! ahoy! good morning for us all! 



DAYBREAK ASHORE 1 33 

Enter John, Frank, Charles, and Peter, breath- 
less and bruised, with torn and soaked garments. They 
fling themselves on the sand. The others gather round. 

URSULA 

Get blankets! 

ANDREW 

Pile the driftwood! Light the fire! 

MARIANNE 

O Charles, it 's good to kiss your rough old beard! 
It's Salter than salt mackerel. 

URSULA 

Wrap you up 
And warm yourselves! 

ANDREW 

Where be the dories, boys? 

CHARLES 

They 're battered up upon the little beach, 
Battered and beaten by the cursed waves! 
The nets all broke! Good God! it was a night! 

URSULA 

Praise Peter and praise Paul, you got safe home! 

JEANETTE 
The nets all broke? 

ERANK 

Yea, broke from float and stake 
And carried clean away with all our haul; 
It 's not no paying job, this devil's storm! 



134 MEUJSINA 

CHARGES 

They say there's devils on the midnight sea 
That sing their hymns to Davy the Old Boy. 
And Satan, down in Hell, beyond the storm. 

PETER 

I heard 'em too. 

ANDREW 

You heard the devils, boy? 
They told you lies, I reckon. 

VOICE OP RAYMOND 

Woe is me! 

PETER {screams) 
Ah! ah! 

VOICE OP RAYMOND 

Thick brine! 

PETER 

Oh! there it goes again, 
The weary voice I heard upon the sea! 
Father, there 's devils round! Come let 's go home! 

VOICE OP RAYMOND 

There is no honor and no charity 
And all are devils' lies. 

CHARLES 

It sounds out there, 
The little beach where we our dories drew. 



DAYBREAK ASHORE 135 



FRANK 



It can't be there. There was n't nothing there 
When we come in! 

URUSLA 

It sounds between the cliff 
And ocean breakers. Underneath that rock 
Where boy nor man can climb or scale or swim 
Or land with dory or with arms and legs, — 
We all have seen that cave. It comes from there. 

VOICE OF RAYMOND 

Honor and Charity and Love are dead. 
They all went out on Melusina's smile. 

MARIANNE 

God guard our souls! 

URSULA 

What are you doing now, 
Casting aside your blanket? 

VOICE OF RAYMOND 

Melusine ! 

JOHN 

I 'm going round, where there's a man to save! 

FRANK 

And I! 

CHARLES 

And I! 



136 MELUSINA 

PETER 

And I! 

JOHN, FRANK, CHARLES and PETER 

And all of us 
To save him from the Lady Melusine! 

ANDREW 

Nay, nay, there 's an old song. Don't risk your bones 

Twixt rock and water. Let us go our ways. 

There 's not no woman with a fish's tail. 

God made 'em queer, but not as queer as those. 

There 's not no mortal man in yonder cave. 

No mortal man could ever crawl in there. 

'T is some rock devil, whining in the dark 

To catch you all for gudgeon. Warily, 

My old horse mackerel, don't you take that lure! 

JOHN 

I know a good, safe ledge eyes cannot see 
From top or bottom. There I used to climb, 
A lad to poke for eggs of gull and tern. 
You women knot a bowline, o'er the face 
O' the crag to let us down in the cave's mouth. 
Follow me, messmates. When a man has been 
All night the toy of every ocean wind, 
His heart grows large for woes of other men. 
Come, comrades. Let us find the Devil's cave; 
For if it be a man, we '11 surely save! 

{Exeunt John, Frank, Charles and Peter.) 

Marianne {ascending cliff) 

The cliff juts out and hangs right in the air. 
No way to see the bottom from the top. 



DAYBREAK ASHORE 137 

ANDREW 



The rope grows slack 



VOICES OF FISHERMEN 

The waves have borne us in 
All safe and sound! 

VOICE OE JOHN 

Belay there ! 

VOICE OE RAYMOND 

Once again 
The devils? Oh! give o'er! I've had enough, 
Enough of torment for a thousand years! 

VOICE OF JOHN 

Hold hard, my hearties! Set your teeth and grit! 
God knows there is no peril for the brave! 

VOICE OF CHARLES 

Dost hear his words? ] 

ANDREW 

How do we hear so plain 
Both him and you? 

VOICE OF JOHN 

Some passage of the rock, 
Some hidden cleft is trumpet for our speech 
That here within the cave is thunder loud. 

URSULA 

Sure 't is a world of wonders! 



138 MELUSINA 

ANDREW 

Where is now 
The goblin? 

VOICE OP PRANK 

It grows darker as I crawl 
And I find nothing! 

VOICE OP CHARLES 

Oh! I feel, I feel 
A something soft and slippery and cold! 

VOICE OP PRANK 

And I! It is a man! 

VOICE OP CHARLES 

A mortal man! 

VOICE OP JOHN 

Fore God, it is the heir of Lusignan! 

Enter Lord and Lady Lusignan, AdelE, Berta, 
CarmagolE, Don Damien and search party. 

CARMAGOLE 

Below that crag he lies! 

DON DAMIEN 

The rope! the rope! 
Lord! Lord! my prayers are granted! 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

Where 's my son? 



DAYBREAK ASHORE 1 39 

ANDREW 

Your servitor, my lord, he 's down below! 

ADELE 
Ray m6 n ? where ? where ? 

MARIANNE 

Inside the Devil's Cave 
So please your gracious ladyship! 

VOICE OP JOHN 

I come! 
Hold fast, my lord! hold fast as drowning man! 
Now! cast off! now! heave away! 

John is raised with Raymond in his arms. The 
people at the rope then busy themselves with raising 
Charles and Frank. 

CARMAGOLE 

They are safe and sound! 

ALL 

All hail! all hail Raymon of Lusignan! 

URSULA 

My John once more! 

lord lusignan. 

My son! my son! my son! 

ADELE 

Awake my love! dost know me? Answer me? 



140 MElvUSINA 

URSULA 

Some brandy for them both! 

MARIANNE 

How white! how pale! 
The poor, pale face like flesh of drowned men! 

adele (to John) 

'Tis thou who saved him? Take thou this cross 

of gold! 
Oh! canst thou not revive him? 

JOHN 

Have no fear. 

URSULA 

Come! chafe him! Here's the brandy. 

Raymond (opening his eyes) 

Melusine! 

ADELE 

Raymon, look up at me, Adele, thine own! 

U)RD LUSIGNAN 

Ill-omened boy! give o'er! 

RAYMOND 

O Melusine! 
Is this thy greeting on the Breton shore? 
Is this the goodly gathering of our kind 
To witness our fair dalliance, Melusine? 
Who is that elder, with the fish's eye? 
Crown him with seaweed! He 's the driftwoods' king! 
O Melusine! O Lady Melusine! 



DAYBREAK ASHORE 1 4 1 

L,et the waves roll and let the fishhawk soar 

And scream above our transports! Where 's the girl 

I was to marry? Some one says she's gone 

To Venice in a gondola to sing 

Of common love above the still lagoon! 

Ha! ha! you blood red fiends, rend her away! 

Her innocence is green as sea water! 

Rend her away, for love will pass and die, 

Always to change into a Melusine! 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

Boy! boy! dost know me? 

RAYMOND 

Aye, you man-eater! 
You eat the body and soul of all poor men! 
Go back to ocean's bed and vex no more 
The puny little dogfish! I '11 have none 
But these fair moonflowers for my Melusine! 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

Delirium! O come, good friends away, 
And hold for secret all that he doth say 
And every motion of his fevered strife, 
If each man sets a value on his life. 



ACT IV 

FORTY DAYS AFTER 

Scene I: Courtyard of the Castle of Lusignan. A 
carousal is discovered of servants and men-at-arms. At 
the left a chapel porch surmounted with the family device. 
In front of this, the statue of a warrior, painted as with 
chain armour. At back, the castle gates, bolted and 
guarded. Time: Easter Morning. 

Enter CarmagolE, Don Damien and Berta. 

man (sings) 

Drink! drink! the noon is nigh! 
Soon the bridegroom will pass by! 
Clink the can and drink her down! 
Don thee, bride, thy veil and gown! 
Clang ye bells and cannon boom! 
Welcome! welcome! bride and groom! 

CHORUS 

Clang ye bells and cannon boom! 
Adele and Raymond, bride and groom! 

GiRiv (sings) 

First the groom and then the bride! 
Then the pageant shall betide; 
Then high mass the priest will say. 
Then the bells on Easter Day 
Toll and toll, mid cannon's boom! 
Te Deum for the bride and groom! 



FORTY DAYS AFTER I 43 



CHORUS 



Clang ye bells and cannon boom! 
Adele and Raymond, bride and groom! 

both (sing) 

Toils and perils everpast! 
Marriage for their loves at last! 
Happy lovers now for aye, 
Joy begins on Easter Day! 
Toll ye bells mid cannon's boom 
Joy forever, bride and groom! 

CHORUS 

Clang ye bells and cannon boom! 
Adele and Raymond, bride and groom! 

BERTA 

Let drunkards troll their carols free from care! 
I spell disaster on the morning air. 
Yon pageant starts; high mass may follow still; 
Joy goes; disaster comes; all ends in ill! 

CARMAGOLF, 

Though black Disaster clomb this ivied wall. 
To meet him point by point and over all 
Behold this image, every inch a man, 
The old Raymon, first Lord of Lusignan. 
Thus on his valor if our Raymond stands, 
Lord of his bosom, mighty of his hands, 
There 's no disaster on the noon or night 
Can harm his spirit while his honor's bright. 
(noise at the castle gate) 

GUARD 

Ha! who comes here? 



144 MEIvUSINA 

DON DAMIEN 

Open the wicket wide 
And this unseemly riot I will quell 
With round rebuke. 

( The guard obeys Don DamiEn and reveals the faces 
of the fishermen and their wives, with Melusina, dis- 
guised in the background.) 

What means this insolence? 



ANDREW 

We come to see the bride. 

GUARD 

Assail the door 
Upon your peril! 

JOHN 

Wife and I be come 
To find a girl whose hearty once I saved 
From drowning. Take you there this cross of gold 
Go, cry it through the castle! 

RAOUI, 

Why! 'twas worn 
By Lady Adele! 

BERTA 

I'll find her. Give it me. 

guard {to John) 
How came you by that token? 



FORTY DAYS AFTER 1 45 

don damien (at wicket) 

Let them in 
All! all! no farther parley! I can answer 
Myself for all. 

(The guard unbars the gates. The fishers are revealed 
against a vista of hillside crowned with pine and poplar, 
and a glimpse of the ocean on the horizon.) 

FISHERS 

God save you! 

Enter John, Charles, Frank, Andrew, Ursula, 
Jeanette and Marianne. As Melusina would 
enter, Don Damien confronts her on the threshold. 

DON DAMIEN 

Ha! there 's one 
I see, less favored than the rest of these. 
Who may this be? 

JOHN 

We know her not. 

ANDREW 

We never 
Seen her before. She hove in sight to-day. 
She flew fair signals. She 's a jaunty barque 
For rage and play, she 'd grace a bridal feast 
Nor never need no nuptials of her own. 

MELUSINA 

Why, fish be fain at weddings, my old spark! 
They make a lusty groom, a buxom bride. 
Look you this turbot, white as bridal veil, 
Fit for a famished bridegroom or a king! 



146 MEIvUSINA 

CARMAGOLE 

Good wife, your wares are fainer than your tongue. 
I 'd rather them than you. 

GUARD 

Cry out your fish 
Along the village street! 

CARMAGOLE 

Hale her away! 

DON DAMIEN 

That woman is all evil! Send her hence! 

GUARD 

You hear his reverence, woman, get you gone! 

MELUSINA 

Get gone yourself ! I '11 never budge, not I ! 

Perhaps a double twenty year ago 

Sir Priest were fain to shrive me anywhere 

His eye could find me, lived I in those days. 

But now the eyes are bleared. The jaundiced cheeks 

May burn no more. The fountains of young life 

Are dry and stagnant, and the heart is cold. 

Then comes Religion; then comes Piety. 

But you, my merry masters, quick and free, 

Will grant me that I enter. 

GUARD 

What 's your fee? 

MELUSINA 

I '11 pay you ducats down. 

(kisses him) 



Alas! alas! 



FORTY DAYS AFTER 1 47 

FIRST MAN 

A smacking bride! 

GUARD 
SECOND MAN 

Look you, he 's drunk with wine! 

DON DAMIEN 

It is the foul enchantress, Carmagole, 
And charmer of men's weakness! 

CARMAGOLE 

Hale her out, 
Good men and true. 

MEWSINA 

They do not hear you, they! 
Nor will they hear you though ye loudly cry. 
My gentle comrades, let us bide awhile 
Or I will cast my kerchief in your face 
And of a truth we '11 see what we shall see. 

SECOND MAN 

That woman 's not ill favored. Ruddy cheek 
And deep gray eye and haunch broad as a boat! 

THIRD MAN 

Remark thee, comrade of her piercing gaze. 

FIRST MAN 

Good woman, you may stay; but stand aside. 



148 MELUSINA 

SECOND MAN 

I '11 stay and thou shalt stay and we '11 be two! 
Salute! salute! 

(tries to kiss her) 

MELUSINA 

Aye, marry have it back! 
A grand salute! 

(boxes his ears) 

Ahh 

Huzzah ! 

SECOND MAN 

Alas, I 'm drowned! 
Thick brine is in mine eyes! they burn! they burn! 
Oh! oh! 

carmagoIvE (to Don Damien) 
Dost leave us? 

DON DAMIEN 

Yea, in haste! 

CARMAGOLE 

Not so! 
Abide thou there. Lord Raymond comes anon! 
We need thy solemn ritual. 

DON DAMIEN 

Stay me not! 
I '11 have Te Deum and high mass precede 
The bridal pageant, grant there yet be time. 
His menaced destiny, I 'd exorcise 
Before Lord Raymond's coming. Bide thou there. 

[Exit. 



FORTY DAYS AFTER 1 49 

MELUSINA 

Why, what 's yon noble statue, armour clad? 
It hath Lord Raymond's likeness. 

RAOUI, 

It was hewn 
With him, the gracious model. 

BEJRTA 

Where hast thou 
Seen the original? 

MEUJSINA 

Long years ago. 
I viewed him on the midnight he was born. 

BFRTA 

Thou liest, may the devil rend thy tongue! 
Oh! oh! 

[Exit. 

FIRST MAN 

Thou art too young, my goodly jade. 

MEUJSINA 

Why, clap me on the shoulder, broad and bare. 
I '11 carry Father Time and lightly too. 
I saw him. Ask of Berta. 

(chime of bells) 

FIRST MAN 

She hath gone 
As one half crazed. 

RAOUL 

She muttered an old spell 



15° MElvUSINA 

FIRST MAN 

The residential doors are open wide, 
The pageant starts. 

CARMAGOIvB 

Fore God, the bells at noon! 

MElvUSINA 

What think you of the statue, Carmagole? 

CARMAGOLE 

I think no thoughts, for I was born a fool. 

{Flourish of trumpets. At the open door of the resi- 
dence, a herald appears. He is followed by three squires 
of the body, who bear the banner of Lusignan.) 

Don Damien has failed! 

MELUSINA 

It looks to me 
More like the elder than the younger lord. 
I 'd view the face more plain. 

{sotto voce) 

Three hundred years! 
Are gone, and yet thy sculptor of new days 
Had potent inspiration! Sweet my lord, 
Ready for all, my beauty gave to thee, 
So dear, so deadly! Now Destruction comes 
On thee and all the splendor of thy line; 
But I alone with yearning must remain! 

CARMAGOLE 

Avaunt! vile witch! the bridal pageant comes! 
Wouldst thou thy curse intrude? 



FORTY DAYS AFTER 151 

MELUSINA 

Aye, good Sir Fool; 
If Beauty be a curse and hearts are frail 
And Youth is ever wayward as the rose 
That wafts wild fragrance o'er the purple sea; 
If Beauty be a curse, the Lord Raymon 
Is doubly cursed in body and inmost soul. 
Frail as the breeze upon a summer eve 
That wanders, who knows whither, or white sand 
Blown in the whirlwind o'er the ocean spray. 
And if in the long hours of latter days, 
Once at his heart he felt the yearing stir 
In poignant memory of my loveliness, 
In spite of all the heavens, his soul and mine 
Like wanton winds and waves forevermore, 
Must mingle with the joyance of the storm 
And tribulation of the moaning wave! 
Better than thou, I know the Lord Raymon, 
All night and day how throbs his heart at ease. 
Before he weds, I 've wiled him from his bride, 
And all thy folly shall not hinder me. 

URSULA 

They come! they come! they crowd the open door! 
The pageant starts! 

CARMAGOLE 

Fore God, the bells at noon! 

voices of monks (within the chapel) 

Ab insurgentibus in me, libera me, Domine, quia oc~ 
cupaverat animam meam. 

mel/usina 

What sounds are these, before the marriage vows, 
All out of human custom? 



152 MEUJSINA 

CARMAGOLE 

Listen thou! 
choir (within) 

The dawn empurples Heaven; 

The morning stars resound; 
New joy to Earth is given; 

Hell trembles at the sound. 

Have done with tears and sorrow 

And all abounding shame. 
Glad angels on the morrow 

His victory proclaim. 

MELUSINA 

By all the gods of old, I can no more! 
Ai! ai! men's hearts are broken with remorse! 
But thou, primeval Chaos, lend thy force 
And grant that I return, ere day blows o'er! 

(She vanishes in a burst of thunder and lightning; a 
shaft of lightning strikes the statue, shatters and over- 
turns it.) 

MEN AND WOMEN. 

Back! back! the statue falls! alas! alas! 
Lord Raymond 's down ! alas ! alas ! alas ! 

CARMAGOIvE 

Raymon the elder, champion of old, 
How low thou liest, founder of thy line! 

SECOND MAN 

The woman was a witch. She cast a spell! 



FORTY DAYS AFTER 153 

GUARD 

The fishers were her leaguers. Down with them. 

AU, 

Down! down! 

CARMAGOEE 

Good friends, no riot! Let them speak! 

JOHN 

We 're all good men and true. 

FRANK 

We know her not. 

ANDREW 

We never saw her face before to-day! 
But if you ask me where 's the woman gone, 
I 'd answer, in the ocean. 

FIRST MAN 

What 's her name? 

AEE 

Her name! 

ANDREW 

You know her name as well as I. 
Look at her emblem o'er the chapel door. 
You know her name and we '11 not say no more. 

Enter Raymond at the door of the chapel; from the 
door of the residence enter Lord and Lady Lusignan 
with AdelE and the wedding procession. Tableau. 



ACT V 
THE WEDDING FEAST 

Scene I : The bower of AdelE. The walls are hung 
with lilac. At the right is a priedieu, carved with the 
figures of cherubim. A lute is lying on a settle by 
the latticed window. From the hall and courtyard be- 
low, there comes a sound of music and of revelry; and 
the chapel bell gives an answering peal to the bells of the 
cathedral in the town. 

Enter Ade^E hurriedly 

ADELE 

Why came I here, thus restless to evade 
My husband, my dear husband, newly wed? 
At Berta's crazy bidding am I come. 
What profitable secret can she know? 
Yet will I hearken, for I doubt and fear 
My Raymond beareth, branded on his soul, 
The burning memories of a love betrayed. 
I rise at morn and listen to the birds : 
"There is no happiness for him nor thee; 
No happiness, no happiness for him, 
For him, for him, for him, nor yet for thee!" 

(kneels at priedieu) 
Oh! hark! the bells at noon! they chime afar! 
Resounding harmonies, how glad ye are! 

sacred melody, that upward wells 
Unto His throne, ye blessed Easter bells. 

1 pray you in your gladness that ye bear 
Unto His ears the burden of my prayer! 



THE WEDDING FEAST 1 55 

VOICES FROM THE BELLS 

Toll! toll! 

Holy is the air. 
Behold the soul 

Of maiden at her prayer! 

ADELE 

Lord of Life, our pilot and our guide, 
Whose spirit brooded o'er the waters wide, 
Whose lightest whisper stills their loudest roar, 

1 pray for Raymond. Heal him and restore. 

VOICES EROM THE BELLS. 

Thy prayers are borne 

Beyond the morn; 
Then hearken to his word 

And thou shalt find 

On adverse wind 
The mercy of our Lord. 

ADELE 

Lord Christ, I thank thee and thou Lord of Days, 
Disdain not thou my thanks. Be thine the praise. 
The night is passed. No longer need I grope. 
There 's mercy on the noonday. Love and Hope 
Uprise o'er all. Here's Berta. Heart, be brave. 
'T is in thy power alone thy love to save. 

Enter Berta with the cross of gold 

BERTA 

My gracious lady, take thy cross once more. 

ADELE 

This cross? My fisherman, where 's he? 



156 MELUSINA 

BERTA 

But now 
Gone with the rest. I bribed 'em, one and all, 
With hoarded wages. I have heard his tale. 
Then take thy cross of olive wood and gold. 
Raymdn on God's fair noon hath still to fear 
Damnation! 

ADKI/S 

Calm thee, Berta, thou dost rave. 

BERTA 

Lady, I 'm calm, who calmly fear the worst. 
Dost thou now know the portent in the court; 
The breaking of Raymon, his effigy; 
The woman, borne away, mid smoke and flame 
Before the eyes of all? 

ADElvE 

When lightning flares 
It smites and rives; and statues may fall down; 
And even fishwives vanish in a crowd 
Like wind on waves that leaves no trace behind. 

BERTA 

Look to thy cross. 'T is graved with ancient rune. 
A necromancer graved it, when he raised 
The proud and potent spirits of the air 
And earth and fire, against insurgent seas. 
Oh! greet Lord Raymond with this amulet! 
The chain must gird his throat ere noon goes by, 
For safety of his soul. No time to waste 
When erring mortals cope with Melusine. 
Her spell begins again upon this hour 
When cease the bells, and lasteth on and on 



The wedding feast 157 

Till consummation of the marriage vows. 
Now is the hour to save him if thou wilt. 
Each moment brings him danger unawares. 

ADEIvE 

Did I believe in any magic spells, 

I would not use them on my wedded lord. 

But I have credence in the word of God 

And human souls and Nature at the root 

Of all things. Bodily and mental ills 

Have differing sources. Often times the mind 

Becomes the body's thrall. That man is lost. 

There is no magic charm to make him whole. 

And oftentimes the two be all at odds 

As once with Raymond. He hath conquered now 

And he and I have plighted faith anew. 

This much I say to thee, old servitor, 

Who hast all kind desires; but urge no more. 

I hear his footstep on the turret stair. 

Then get thee gone, good Berta, from my bower. 

I '11 hold Raymon by his dear loyalty, 

Not by a charm. 

BERTA 

My lady has fine words. 
And if thy Raymond had a tertian 
Or gruel in the throat, wouldst tell the leech, 
By loyalty alone he could be cured, 
And inborn virtue, that would make him whole? 
I tell thee, Raymond stands in peril dire, 
Amid the fiend's enchantments, from an old 
Enmity of bad spirits. We can save 
Him from his fate by this! 



158 M3LUSINA 

ADELE 

And our good deeds. 
Have done with thy forebodings and the event 
Will prove a nobler happiness for all. 

Enter Raymond. 

RAYMOND 

Adele, why hast thou fled me? 

ADELE 

Berta here, 
Entreated audience. She hath a charm 
To hang about thy neck and keep thee whole 
From demons and foul spirits. 

berta 

Furthermore 
I pray thee, Raymond, thou my foster child, 
Thou nourished on this breast, who hast a place 
Within my heart of one who died too young, 
I pray thee shun the feast and pass the hours 
Till vesper bells in chapel and at prayer! 
Nay, hear me out! I beg thee on my knees! 
So may our gracious Lord, victorious 
Over the grave, redeem thee from thy fate; 
And I in peace may die. 

RAYMOND 

Thy head is turned. 
Thine amulets and prayers are not for me. 
What, Berta, kind old nurse, all sobs and tears? 
There, still thy troubled bosom. I 'm all safe. 
I 'm married, Berta. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 1 59 

BERTA 

Out, alas! I knew 
Thy fate and grieve not less that all comes true. 

[Exit. 

RAYMOND 

Adele, our cares are ended and our joys 
Are now begun with love forevermore; 
As even on the ocean, calm and blue 
Neath smiling sunlight, so our souls may sail 
Together onward. 

ADEI/E 

Thou art all for me! 

RAYMOND 

Oh! thine and thine alone, my own true heart! 
Thine, thine and thine alone; if ever I 
Took fancy for another, let me now 
Be swallowed in the foaming of the sea. 
What 's there? 

ADELE 
You start! 

RAYMOND 

What was it passed the door? 

ADELE 

Why there was nothing there. 

RAYMOND 

Aye, now I know. 
Only a thought that like a shadow came, 
Like a chill breath; full fain were I to know 



l6o MELUSINA 

The whence and whither; for as one it seemed 
That knows the secrets of the ocean. 

ADELE 

Alas! alas! it is the same old tune! 

My lord, my lord, remember I am here. 

Remember I am here to charm away 

This restless yearning. Bend thou over me 

And I '11 protect thee. Long before the night 

Our hearts shall be at peace forevermore. 

RAYMOND 

Adele, thou stirrest always the old love, 
Like balmy breeze, that blows the mist away 
From heather on the moor and eglantine 
And gorse and hairbell. All the forest side 
Whispers of gentle hours, Oh! trust me still; 
For I to thee will swear as belted knight, 
May life and love depart if evermore 
In word or deed my spirit rest untrue. 

ADELE 

Give me my lute. I '11 sing thee one sweet song. 

RAYMOND 

Thy words are sweeter still. 

ADELE 

Nay, listen now 
Before we join the feast and noisy throng, 
A lover's answer to thy lover's vow. 

SONG OP ADELE 

Far, far away, where the silver myrtles blow, 

Under their spray there 's a heart that beats for thee. 



THE WEDDING FEAST l6l 

Come to my arms where the healing waters flow, 
Far, far away from the perils of the sea. 

Long have I waited for my own true love; 

Lonely I listened and I longed for thee. 
Come to my breast as flies the homing dove, 

Far, far away from the changes of the sea! 

RAYMOND 

Oh! glory of our dream! 

voices (without) 

Raym6n! Adele 

ADELE 

They call us, Raymond. 

RAYMOND 

Wait you there below; 
We '11 join you presently. 

VOICE 

We '11 find you there. 

ANOTHER VOICE 

We come! we come! we '11 find you where you are! 
Enter Carmagole with a rout of guests 

FIRST I,ORD 



Already closeted? 



FIRST IvADY 

The feast is toward. 



1 62 MELUSINA 

SECOND LORD 

A marriage, what? a marriage? buffets give. 

{buffets Raymond) 

RAYMOND 

And buffets take. 

{buffets Second Lord) 

FIRST LORD 

And buffets all around! 

CARMAGOLE 

"O rapture," quoth the turtle, "Give me corn, 
I '11 do my cooing after!" 

SEVERAL GUESTS 

To the feast! 

SECOND LADY. 

Look you, Adele doth bridle with a blush! 
Let 's bear them to their places. 

FIRST LORD 

Buffets all! 

{Amid the scuffle that ensues, CarmagolE mounts the 
window-seat and with mock solemnity enforces silence) 

CARMAGOLE 

Bach dainty lady choose a gentleman. 

The bride and groom and Folly lead the van. 

Forever joined alike in weal and woe. 

all 
Then hey! together to the feast we go! 



THE WEDDING FEAST 1 63 

Scene II: The great hall of the castle. The tables 
are spread. On the dais are seated the bridal party, with 
Carmagoi,E on the steps of the dais. The other guests, 
with Don DamiEn, are grouped round the lower tables. 
Servants are coming and going with meats and wine. 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

A pledge to all fair friends. 

DON DAMIEN 

May this fair feast 
Prepare the path for many riper years; 
And all the joys of earth, when over all 
Doth brood the holier joy of married vows. 

Enter trencherman with swan 
Behold the swan! I pledge thee, royal bird! 
And may this life of marriage be as down, 
Warm in thy nest about thine infant brood. 

au. 
The swan! the swan! 

CARMAGOI/E 

A flock of lustier birds 
I 'd pledge. The jangling jay, the gabbling pie, 
The water wagtail and the laughing loon, 
The popinjay and goose, the bride and groom! 

FIRST lord 
Once more to pledge the bridegroom and the bride! 

Ahh 
The bride and groom! the bride and groom! all hail! 



1 64 MELUSINA 

Raymond (rising) 

Kind friends, I have not many words to say. 
This joy gives greater solace — 

FIRST LORD 

Solace never 
Came to a happy honeymoon before. 

RAYMOND 

Our marriage, duly solemnized, remains — 

ALL 
All hail the groom! 

RAYMOND 

Like unattempted seas. 

ADFLE 

Enough, my lord! 

FIRST LADY 

Your pardon, lady mine, 
We want his words. 

FIRST LORD 

The lady hath the power 
To do the talking in the after years. 

SECOND lord 
What ho! the bridegroom, singing like a swan! 

FrcsT lady 
It is the swan song of a bachelor. 



The wedding feast 165 

Third lord 

Alas! alas! but give us leave to weep 

His prone departure into other lands. 

For single men must grieve, when their good sect 

Is thus diminished. 

FIRST LORD 

Let us have his words. 

RAYMOND 

Kind friends, upon this grateful afternoon, 
My joy is such, the ultimate of woe, 
I 'd give you anything my heart may hold; 
But words alack, I may not for pure joy. 
Then here 's to all around us, father, mother, 
Dear friends and life companions. 

ALL 

Hail! all hail! 

Enter a chorus of youths and maidens crowned with 
roses 

SONG 

Bloom, ye meadows on Easter Day! 

Ring ye valleys! with music ring! 
Laugh, ye lovers, the world is gay! 

Ho! for the bounty of the spring! 

Crown with myrtle, crown with bay! 

Sparkling wine and roses bring! 
Fie, to-morrow and yesterday! 

Ho! for the bounty of the spring! 



1 66 MEUJSINA 

Drive dull care and sorrow away; 

Leave the nightingale to sing! 
Leave the lark his roundelay! 

Ho! for the bounty of the spring! 

Blood is red and the days are rare; 

Youth and Love will have their fling! 
Better than gold, a maiden's hair! 

Ho! for the bounty of the spring! 

Seek the bower in twilight air, 

When the bells at evening ring! 
Wait your lady, fain and fair! 

Ho! for the bounty of the spring! 

Love is here and Love is there. 

Love is ever upon the wing. 
Meet him and greet him everywhere! 

Ho! for the bounty of the spring! 

CARMAGOLE 

They sing their words accordant to their wits. 

Love is but known by poets and by fools. 

'T is Folly's poesie and Wisdom's bane. 

Then, shake my bells, I'll drink a pledge to her, 

The Lady Adele, the Lady Paragon, 

Whom Folly crowns. 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

Fool, give me forced leave. 
I '11 pledge the bride! 

CARMAGOLE 

The father and the fool 
Will pledge the bride together. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 1 67 

GUESTS 

Drink we all. 
To her! ... to her! . . . Lord Raymond! . . . paramours! 

RAYMOND 

I drink to her whom Fate and my own will 
Have made my own forever! 

GUESTS 

Drink we all! 

RAYMOND 

You need not move nor smile that smile of Hell! 
Give o'er that leer! Have I not drunk a health 
To her who bound me with a golden chain? 
What would you here, you devil woman you? 

ADElvE 

My gracious lord, what makes your words so wild, 
So rough and broken? 

RAYMOND 

What is this I see? 
Before mine eyes, there rises up a form, 
Stern, horrid and yet beautiful as night 
In every facial contour. Lips apart 
And eyes that take away Medusa's stare 
In fierce, condensed fire. Her brows are crowned 
With raven locks! Her face, though deadly pale, 
Full of the power to wake a man's desire 
And nameless agonies. Thus in my sleep 
Ofttimes I've seen her on a nightmare cloud, 
Black vested, rose engirdled and a brooch 
On the left shoulder of a roseate stone 
That flames as with a million fires of Hell! 



1 68 MELUSINA 

Now flushes up the crimson of her cheeks 
And kindles anger in immortal eyes! 
It is the fatal spirit of our house! 
It is, it is the Lady Melusine. 

Melusina appears before them all. 

MELUSINA 

It is the time, it is the place at last. 
And I must be myself and thou thyself 
And both must dwell together evermore! 

RAYMOND 

What is the dreadful meaning of those words? 

MELUSINA 

Desire and doom! the whirlwind of desire 
On damned seas, but thou and I are one! 

RAYMOND 

Adele, thy word will wrest me from her spell. 
(AdelE falls, fainting into the arms of Lady Lusignan.) 

LORD LUSIGNAN 

She cannot answer. 

LADY LUSIGNAN 

Oh! you 've broke her heart 
As you have rent his life and ours in twain. 

MELUSINA 

I do my will. 

{Vanishes. Raymond falls across his chair in the 
convulsions of death. Lord Lusignan and Don Da- 
mien rush forward and bend over him.) 



the wedding feast 169 

adelE (reviving) 

I dreamed a shadow came 
Between thy love and mine! What! liest thou there? 
Without thee, all is void and desolate. 
Eternal torments let me share with thee, 
So that thy spirit come once more to me! 

DON DAMIEJN 

Let's bear him to his chamber. Last repose, 

If not the tortured soul, the body knows. 

And thou, dear daughter, unto thee 't is given 

For thy lost love to pray. There 's hope in Heaven. 



FINIS 



THE ISLES OF GOLD 



To A. C. 

THE HEROINE OP MY HAPPIER MOMENTS 
AND ALWAYS AN INSPIRATION 



INVOCATION 

Oh, for the blessed Isles of Gold, 

Where still the mighty loves of old 

Abide secure and free from care, 

Divided here, united there! 

Spurn the base earth where time and fate 

Bar the highway to heaven's gate; 

Where still the strife of fate and time 

Are discords on the morning chime; 

And where a mellow sadness wells 

On every peal of wedding bells. 

Oh, come away beyond the dark 

Where carols loud the morning lark, 

Where brighter beams immortal light, 

And where the noonday is more bright! 

Immortal glory on the dawn, 

O'er babbling spring and tender lawn; 

Immortal glory o'er the sea, 

And on the vast o'er shadowing tree 

Where still the tameless winds blow wild 

For any little earthborn child, 

Who, wafted on a cloud of dreams, 

Or ever yet the morning beams, 

To that fair isle is borne afar 

Beyond the bourne of any star; 

Where love and hope and joy abide 

Beyond the flowing of the tide. 

Fond mortals turn ye not away! 

To fading dawn and tragic day; 

In answer to the heart's own prayer 

'T is joy, 't is joy abideth there! 

Bright joy that brings eternal youth, 



174 TH 3 ISlyBS OF GOLD 

The rainbow gold of love and truth, 
No mortal man may hope to find 
Who leaves not far on earth behind 
The demon hopes, fond mortals ken, 
The evil ways and works of men. 



OUR VILLA 

When in the air the springtime thrills 

Ho, for our villa in the hills! 

Come, my dear one, come with me; 

All our joy is yet to be! 

Girl of mine whose radiant eyes 

Teach me virtue, fair and wise: 

When there 's no more ice and snow, 

Let us then together go 

Far above the little town 

Lowly in the dust adown, 

High upon the mountain side, 

There to spend our summer-tide. 

You and I are all alone 

When the carping world is gone. 

In the sunbeams we will fare 

With the spirits of the air 

And the spirits of the trees 

Whose whisper steals upon the breeze, 

Mid the peeping Alpine flowers, 

That give gay color to the hours. 

Ever joined in love we dwell 

By jutting peak and ferny dell 

Happy as two mountain rills. 

Ho, for our villa in the hills ! 

Look! upon the mountain side 

How the dreams are glorified 

By the loves of me and you — 

The only place where dreams come true! 

And every wish and every word, 



176 THE ISI.ES OF GOLD 

Swifter than the falcon bird, 
Compels dull dross to its command 
In every corner o' the land! 

You crafty gnomes who delve in caves 

Below the water as it laves 

The sun kissed mountain at the base, 

I call from your abiding place 

What time the sunset colors take 

The hushed waters of the lake 

And Twilight with her wild sweet words 

Doth put to sleep the nestling birds. 

When in the dark the world goes round, 

Leave your dwellings underground; 

Hasten up the mountain tracks 

Te;ti thousand stones upon your backs! 

Parian marble gleaming clear, 

Like the noonday all sincere, 

Jaspar flaming in the night, 

Lapis lazuli, malachite, 

Purple porphyry in its pride 

Like Augustus glorified 

Or him who dwelled in Tivoli; 

And all the gorgous hues that lie 

Under fretted spire and dome 

Where tombed bishops make their home 

Amid the dreams of an old world; 

Like a garden all unfurled 

In tropic colors manifold; — 

And bring the yellow Indian gold 

And bring the gold of ruddy hue 

Until my lady hath her due 

And all your labor and your art 

Can match the treasure of her heart. 

Or if ye tire of the task, 

One less arduous to ask, 



OUR villa 177 

Ye gnomes and kobolds sturdy made, 
Wield the pick and ply the spade 
And hoist your derricks in the air 
And craft and cunning do not spare. 
Join the framework; build the walls 
Around the court and vaulted halls 
Until our villa, rising high 
Above the scope of Envy's eye, 
Gives greater glory, when the dawn 
Glows iridescent and the lawn 
Upon the slope grows doubly bright 
With daisies yellow and daisies white; 
And violet and anemone; 
And purple bellflowers merrily 
Nod upon us as we pass 
And brush the dewdrops from the grass. 
Look you that your task be done 
Ere the coming of the sun; 
And our elfin palace rise 
Spire on spire beneath the skies, 
With crystal domes as fragile fair 
As fragrance on the morning air. 
Then you and I, my lady dear, 
Upon the pleasure of the year 
Bathed in the morn, may stand before 
Our own dream villa, at the door. 

How the joy of morning thrills 

Over our villa in the hills! 

Come my dear one to the door, 

Aged bronze, encrusted o'er 

With tracery of beaten gold 

And the storied loves of old; 

The rumor of whose deeds, blown o'er 

Even to this, our inland shore, 

Doth put to sleep immortal Pain 



178 THE ISLES OF GOIyD 

And hearts desires are born again. 

Youths and maidens, crowned with vine, 

Round the portals intertwine 

With ivy of a love eterne; 

And hymeneal altars burn; 

And over all doth proudly go 

Bros of the charmed bow; 

And joy of all things fresh and fair 

Gleams golden through the portals there. 

Who 's the porter at the gate, 

Robed in hues of royal state, 

Winged like the afterglow 

Over peaks of roseate snow? 

At his wand the doors will ope; 

Lady mine, his name is Hope. 

Look, the double doors are wide! 

You and I may pass inside. 

Lo, the sober vaulted hall 

Where little Hopes crowd over all, 

Bach a curly silken page! 

Down the staircase how they rage! 

How they rush the hallway through 

In tumult of glad retinue! 

Lady let us pass along 

Mid the welcome of the throng, 

With a solemn step and slow 

To a court whose virgin glow 

Rivals the Himalayan snows 

Or candor of an Alpine rose. 

Round the court on every hand 

Rise the doric columns grand, 

As of jasper glorified, 

Where the hues of summer hide 

And flash again and hide again 

Like sunbeams through an April rain. 

In the midst a fountain plays 



OUR VILLA 179 

Where myrtle grows in divers ways 
And little Joys of quiet hours 
Around the fountain bloom like flowers; 
And all about and all around 
Are intuitions of sweet sound 
Where harps and viols in tuneful maze 
Swell to the music of your praise — 
With music sweet as nightingale 
Or woodlark o'er the dancing dale; 
And mighty as the storm-tossed seas 
And calm as June on sunlit leas 
Come Love's primeval harmonies. 
Within the court a noisy throng 
Of Hopes and Joys are come along; 
Nor tongue nor pen can ever grace 
The beauty of each radiant face, 
Who in a happy hour are come 
Eager to great us at our home. 
Aspirations everywhere 
Hover on the morning air, 
Clothed in hues of sunset fires, 
Winged with beautiful desires, 
Color that rises, falls and dies 
I/ike wings of those ephemeral flies 
Whose myriads on the waters play 
In joy of one brief summer day. 
Evermore the fountain plays 
Mid the murmur and the maze; 
And the limpid waters run 
O'er the red carnelian; 
And the living water seems 
To mix and mingle with our dreams. 
Lady, you are all mine own; 
And you and I are all alone; 
And you and I together now 
In veneration lowly bow 



l8o THE ISLES OP GOLD 

Before the spirit of our Love 

That lifts us all the spheres above; 

And oh, the brown and golden hair! 

And oh, your smile beyond compare! 

And oh, your look so tender mild! 

As any trustful little child 

Who knows not any fret or shame, 

All innocent of the crass game 

Of life! My lady, lovely fair! 

And you and I together there, 

And only joy for you and me, 

And love in maiden purity! 

So your lips in laughter spread 

Like a flower opening red, 

Fragrant as the summer rose 

That in its beauty doth unclose 

Beside a honeysuckle bower; 

And oh! the breath of orange flower 

When lips touch lips in a suspense 

Of pleasure many times intense 

As on the rack the tortured pain! 

And so again and yet again 

Dawns in your lips and cheeks and eyes 

The tumult of a glad surprise; 

And like God's bounty from above 

Surges o'er both the mutual love 

That far from man's unnumbered ills 

Builded our villa in the hills. 



LOVE'S DISCORD 

The trogan, he was a beautiful bird; 
The hill and the dale reechoed his word; 
His crimson breast and verdant tail 
Were borne upon the favoring gale 
In lands beyond the summer seas, 
Where hover the joys like humblebees, 
And rosemary grows without the rue, 
And hearts' desires may all come true. 
He warbled his song all over the hill 
And lovely and long by meadow and rill; 
He sang of truth and triumph of right; 
For the day will follow the darkest night, 
And winter gives way when summer is warm, 
And the sun will shine beyond the storm. 
Oh! how the little trogan sang, 
And how the lively flowers upsprang! 
Pink and white all over the lea 
They were a beautiful sight to see. 
He sang and he sang by meadow and rill 
And the song came down all over the hill 
And the sunlight came in a golden flood 
Sure to be there to warm your blood. 
And she was there, the maiden fair, 
With tender eyes and rippling hair; 
But how she came to that far land, 
She never quite could understand. 

Beyond the charmed hill there stood 

A wilderness of charmed wood; 

And in the midst, where shady streams 



1 82 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

Babbled the joys of nobler dreams 

And far off memories of fair earth 

And high desires of human birth; 

Between the clusters of the trees, 

Still rustling with the fragrant breeze, 

High overhead the sunlight shone 

On an old, old wall of marble stone. 

Around that wall, a circle ran 

Of columns all corinthian 

With crumbling shaft and capital; 

And the ivy, climbing over all 

Within its clasp did still retain 

Vague memories of ancient pain. 

'Twas Eros' temple in the wood, 

Avoided by the trogan brood; 

In that elysian land of spring, 

Avoided as a usual thing; 

But in the light of Dreamland's day, 

'T was there the maiden held her way 

Beyond the hills, beyond the shore; 

And the little trogan flew before. 

The chequered sun and eddying shade 

A thousand, thousand patterns made 

That flickered and changed like elmo fires 

Or a maiden's fancies and desires. 

So, mid the music of the trees, 

Still guided onward by the breeze, 

They came upon an open space 

Before that consecrated place, 

Ere yet the brighter gods did fall, 

For ages immemorial 

To winged Eros dedicate; 

Now banished by an adverse fate. 

But guarded still by some strange spell 

In myrtle grove and mossy dell, 

Where violets all their hues combined 



LOVE'S DISCORD 183 

Mid columns ivy intertwined, 

Sweet spirits came invisible; 

But by their voices you could tell 

In recreant ages all did move 

In sorrow of departed love. 

The girl drew nigh the temple there 

Her heart more silent than deep prayer; 

And the trogan stopped and sudden and solemn, 

With folded wings he sat on a column. 

And so the murmur swelled to sighs 

And old, forgotten melodies 

Where interwoven still was heard 

By ravished ears, the selfsame word, 

All other whispered words above, 

The word of the world, the word of Love. 

Of Love! create the spheres among, 

Forever fair, forever young 

And over all the sceptered throng 

Of elder gods, forever strong! 

Above religion's gain and loss, 

Above the crescent and the cross, 

His word was borne eternally, 

That youngest, eldest deity. 

Within those columns clear of shade 
A fountain in the sunshine played, 
Flashing the fulgence of the sky 
Whose burning blue might never die. 
And where those living waters ran, 
Before the maiden's eyes, a man 
Appeared whose features bore the trace 
Of that undaunted soldier race, 
That long ago came fiercely forth 
In raven galleys from the north. 
When his blue eye met her brown eye, 
It kindled in intensity; 



THE ISLES OP GOLD 

For in the realms of earth or air 

He saw not anything more fair, 

Whether his wandering way might go 

On highland moors and heather blow; 

Or where in immemorial lands 

The pyramid eternal stands 

With the great sphynx, crouched on the sands. 

Over the olive cheek that there 

Was shadowed by the rippling hair, 

Stole a faint blush as on the morn 

When dawn awakens at the horn 

Of some far huntsman in the vale 

Reechoing over hill and dale. 

All that was tender in her eyes 

Was kindled in a bright surprise; 

And parting still, the crimson lips 

Smiled bright as Hebe when she dips 

The nectar that the great gods crave; 

And oh, the kiss he took and gave! 

So from the myrtle flowers among, 

Over them all, the trogan's song 

Which at his heart did merrily stir, 

Came forth in melody for her. 

And all around the freshening gales 

Loudly over the hills and dales 

Carolled their joy; and merrily 

The wild birds warbled in every tree; 

And woods and winds and waters gave 

Back to their souls in one great wave 

The triumph and wild harmony 

Of Love, the primal deity. 

Then, following on that crash of sound 

That thrilled and thrilled the forest round, 

The maiden knew her southern charms 

Were all enfolded in his arms; 



love's discord 185 

And trembling as in fear they stood 
In Bros' temple in the wood. 

They say who wander by those streams, 

Sorrow comes to the land of dreams; 

But how it comes and when and where, — 

Whether 't is wafted on the air; 

Whether it creeps along the ground; 

Whether it grows the. rocks around 

Or from the branches of the trees; 

Or on the eddying of the breeze 

Slides down from heaven at break of day; 

Far wiser tongues than mine must say. 

Unto the lovers, for their shame, 

I only know that sorrow came, 

And she and her companion, sin 

Even in dreamland, entered in. 

And joy who fain would hesitate 

To leave the lovers to their fate, 

Lingered upon that fairy morrow 

Companioned by a later sorrow. 

Low whispered the Italian maid: 

"Of all this love I am afraid! " 

And pushed against his breast away 

Like a wild creature brought to bay; 

And fought and struggled to be free. 

He only held the tighter, he. 

Her palms were pressed against her brow; 

And once again she whispered low 

In tones too desperate to be sad: 

"Your kisses! they will drive me mad! 

Why do I love you, darling? why? 

Is there no answer in your eye? 

The others! Oh, you must confess! 

Your lips are closed, your eyes say, 'Yes'!" 

"Light loves," he whispered, "Nothing more; 



1 86 THE ISIyES OP GOLD 

I never loved a girl before 

As I love you." Her eyes were stern; 

There seemed an angry fire to burn 

Deep underneath, the cheeks aflame 

In a wild agony of shame. 

He stood with an averted gaze; 

And underneath the pouring rays 

Of that dream sun, as spark from glead, 

He felt his own red heart to bleed. 

And far and near and late and soon 

As weary as the seawind's rune 

Of the gray norns; or as the wave 

Where frenzied Sappho found her grave; 

The threatening spirits of old times 

Of guilty loves and ancient crimes 

Thundered about them where they stood 

In Eros' temple in the wood. 

So, when once more he put his mouth 

To hers, and she as one in drouth 

Still shuddering with the sense of sin 

Felt all the sweet to drink it in: 

"Those lips!" she cried as he caressed, 

"How many hundreds have they pressed?" 

And all the nobler, happier loves 

Fled back to their immortal groves; 

And left the twain abiding there, 

One heart, one soul and one despair. 

And as upon a desert blast 

The deep divergence of the past 

Uprose against their heart's desires. 

And hers were hot with southern fires, 

Where the old pagans wiled away 

Passionate hours on Baiae's Bay. 

And his all drenched with wind and wave, 

Where fiord and cliff and yawning cave 

Grow red in the Aurora's gleam; 



love's discord 187 

Where shrill the lonely eagles scream 

Above the stern, embattled walls; 

Where freedom lives, and thanes and thralls 

Alike were stalwart with the cause 

To shape new manners and new laws. 

And hers — the vision came between 

Of a world empire that had been, 

Where slavery ravaged all the land 

With subjugation, hand in hand; 

Where rose the triple crowned state 

Over the world to dominate; 

To sap the life of young desires, 

And blast conviction with her fires, 

And chain the passions with her chain, 

Though still the tortured years retain 

The tenderness and cruelty 

That e'er hath been and e'er shall be 

Where steal blue Baiae's waters o'er 

That smiling, false Italian shore. 

And on his side and on her side 

The generations did divide; 

With equal heart and all their might 

Eager to win that elder fight, 

She for the old, imperial south; 

And he as from a trumpet's mouth, — 

For love and for religion, she; 

And he for love and liberty. 

Each bent on an opposing way 

Even in Dreamland and its day; 

Each unto each alike to prove 

So joined, the pain of parted love, 

And even in the parting's pain 

To feel Love's rapture and his gain. 

Fated afar at heart to bleed, 

But where their wandering steps might lead, 



the; isles op gold 

Fated forevermore to know 
True love and all the joy and woe. 

And so the gracious vision did dissolve 
And faded on the morning as they stood; 

And theirs a darker problem still to solve 
Afar from Eros' temple in the wood. 

Slowly the mystic columns, towering high, 
Grew pale and filmy; and the grass beneath 

Faded away; and faded the dream sky 
And rhapsody of love and gathering death. 

To unavailing gods did either pray 
To linger for a while upon that shore ; 

And fate that soon would drive them far away 
Left them together for one moment more. 

And all about their heads and all around 
Their breaking hearts, forevermore did seem 

To swell the pain of ages and the sound 
Of love and grief, eternal dream on dream. 

The land where happy dreams abound 
Is always ready to be found 
By little children in their moods, 
Who love the meadows and the woods 
And carolling of morning birds; 
And all the mother's loving words, 
And all the father's loving care; 
But ye who court the world's despair 
Too soon, the touch of mortal pain 
Must call you back to life again. 
But the boys and girls are happy at play 
In the lands beyond the promise of day; 
Where over the dale and over the hill 



love's discord 189 

The trogan warbles with many a trill; 
And over the hill in the floods of light 
The flowers are blooming pink and white; 
And the trogan warbles from tree to tree 
In melody glad as glad can be; 
For sure as the robin will eat the cherry. 
The trogan is always happy and merry. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 

OR 

THE LIVING CHRISTMAS TREE 

The Persons 

In the World 

The Little Boy 
The Mother 
The Priest 

Beyond 

The Lion 

The Trogan 

The Trogan's Mother 

The Mountain King 

Humpy, his General 

Tron, his Counsellor 

Olaf 

Santa Claus 

The Spirit op the Little Boy 

Children, Flowers, Trolls, 
Rosmarines and Spirits 
of Lethe 



PROLOGUE 

Scene: Inner room of tenement house. A small 
Boy is playing on the floor. His toys are a rubber lion 
and a colored print of two tropical birds. A lamp is 
burning dimly on a shelf. Time: Christmas Eve. 

BOY 

I wish I had a Christmas tree 

For love and not for charity. 

I couldn't go to church to-night; 

Dey told me dat my head was light; 

So Fader Brady sends to me 

Dem tings from off de Christmas tree. 

De priest, he gives 'em all de word 

To send to me dis beast an' bird; 

An' dey is good, but mudder dear, 

I wish dat you was also here. 

It 's lonely when youse gone away 

An' won't be back till close of day, 

A leaving me alone to try 

An' wash de close of some rich guy. 

You rubber beast, upon my cheek 

I squeezes you to make you speak; 

An' youse a baby lion, I guess. 

Your words, dey breaks my loneliness. 

You baby bird, your mudder's true; 

She alius stops an' stays by you. 

I hope we finds it pleasant wedder, 

De time we stops an' stays togedder. 

Youse all dat's comin' in to me. 

If Santa Claus would bring a tree — 



192 THE ISIvES OF GOLD 

He would n't never come, because 
I don't believe in Santa Claus; 
An' if dere was one, he won't come; 
Dere ain't no winder in dis room. 
An' down de chimney, he would move 
Himself inside de air tight stove; 
An' dere he wouldn't boil or fry; 
He 'd freeze to death; dat's how he 'd die! 
Dey says he comes to udder boys 
An' gives 'em several hundred toys, 
De little ones dat 's pure an' good 
An' has de cash an' close an' food; 
Dat has de pretty shoes to wear 
An' never hears a word of swear. 
When all dose little children sleeps 
Den Santa down de chimney creeps, 
An' if de goodness round 'em beams 
Dey don't have no unpleasant dreams; 
But round dere pillars, angels sings. 
Dey say dose mugs has colored wings, 
An' takes de boys to pleasant places 
Where flowers bloom wid sweet girl faces, 
An' everyting is like to be 
A labor picnic by de sea. 

baby beast an' baby bird, 

You stay wid me an' hear de word; 
Wid me alone you '11 have to stay 
For youse de only ones to play. 
You lion, youse all fat an' neat; 
You won't get nuttin' here to eat; 
An' birdy, don't you be afraid 
At all dese words what I have said; 
For dough dere's nuttin now inside, 

1 could n't eat you if I tried. 

I wish my fader now was here 
For Christmas present or New Year. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 1 93 

He 'd put dose children in dere place 

Dat says my birth is a disgrace; 

He'd put the truth inside my head; 

For mudder tells me fader 's dead, 

But all de guys dat wish me ill 

Dey says he 's live an' kickin' still. 

My mudder says it 's better far, 

We two togedder as we are; 

But she so poor an' I but five, — 

I wish my fader was alive! 

Dem millionaires may have dere troubles 

Wid racin' yachts an' auto-bubles 

An' cash for everything dey wants 

An' every week a pair of pants! 

We calls 'em piggies in de pen 

But sure dey must be happy men; 

An' when a handsome one I see 

I tink, "If only dat was he!" 

If Santa Claus would bring him now 

An' hang him from de Christmas bough, 

I 'd cut him down before he 's hurt 

Dough hangin' may be his desert! 

De Devil's took what he has gave. 

Some faders better will behave, 

Like Jimmy Grady's, who can vote 

An' get his coal an* winter coat; 

If we had one like dat, you see, 

De boss would help my mudder an' me; 

For he 'd go votin' to de polls 

An' we would get our winter coals; 

But now we '11 freeze along widout, 

Dere's nuttin more to talk about! 

O baby beast an' baby bird, 

Of all my troubles you has heard! 

Sometimes dey goes an' leaves me be 

An' den dey all comes back to me. 



194 TH E ISLES OF GOLD 

For many days I had n't cried; 
I felt all frozen up inside, 
An' mudder begged a bit to eat 
Offen de copper on de beat. 
He follored mudder into here, 
An' winked de udder eye all queer, 
An' all in his brass buttons fine 
Says he: "A present? Not in mine! 
Sure dat would be a give-a-way, 
For what we gets we has to pay. 
An' you can pay me well, you know; 
Women like you in want of dough, 
A pretty woman in your place! 
An' " — Here my mudder slapped his face. 
He swore an took her by de arm; 
Says he: "My girl, you '11 come to harm! 
I '11 learn you how to put on airs!" 
An' somehow he went down the stairs 
Backward; an' mudder slammed de door 
Fell on her knees upon de floor! 
Wid streamin' eyes an' streamin' hair 
She knelt an' prayed our lady dere! 
An' — oh, de boiling tears dey come ! 
Mudder an' me is on de bum! 
Against de world we holds our head 
Wid tea an' cheese an' bits of bread. 
Six days we had n't had no meat! 
We ain't had nuttin fit to eat! 
Dese walls an' floor, dey needs a broom 
An' sure it is a rotten room 
An' cold an' damp an' glory be 
I wish I had a Christmas tree! 
(Crosses to bed. Flings himself down and weeps bitterly.) 
O baby beast an' baby bird, 
Of all my troubles you has heard! 



THE) SECOND BIRTH 1 95 

De coverlid keeps out de cold; 
De afternoon is growing old; 
An' baby bird an' baby beast, 
We '11 go away out of de east; 
An' all we tree will go, will go — 
Hark to de singing soft an' low! 
De fairies flutters round an' sings 
An' say, dose mugs has angels' wings! 
Crimson an' gold wid purple stains, 
An' white as daisies on de plains, 
An' liquid blue of noonday sheen, 
An' olif green an' meadow green! 
De Lord has painted up dose wings 
Wid colors of all livin' tings 
To enter in my lowly door, 
Even de dwelling of de poor! 



ACT I 

The Spirits op Deeper Sleep are carrying the 
Boy, and singing as they go: 

Over the mountains far away, 

After many a mile — o, 
Over the line of night and day, 

Lies the land of Byelow. 

Close the eyes and then you '11 see; 

Close the eyelids weepy; 
Little one, now you '11 joyful be 

Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. 
Lift you up and carry away; 

All the stars are winking; 
Silver and gold for children's play, 

All to come for thinking. 

Over the river, murmuring low, 

After many a mile — o, 
Silver and gold for daisies grow 

In the land of Byelow. 
Silver and gold are everywhere, 

No more tears or sorrow, 
Nobody there to curse and swear; 

That will be to-morrow. 
Lift you up and carry away; 

Never a hard word spoken, 
Never a whisper to betray, 

Never a heart that's broken. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 1 97 

Set you down and end the song; 

Leave you here to smile — o ; 
Summer for winter all day along 

In the land of Byelow. 

Over the river and hills we go 
Many and many a mile — o, 

Far from where the poppies blow 
In the land of Byelow. 

Only this that we can tell 

Santa Claus, he loves you well. 
Farewell, farewell! 

{They set the Boy on the farther side of the stream and 
vanish) 

BOY 

Now all dem singing mugs is flown 
It 's kind o' lonesome here alone; 
For do' de night is like de day 
Dere aint no children here to play; 
And over all de shinin' land 
I did n't see no peanut stand. 
Dere aint no sporty little boys 
To run about and make a noise, 
No little girls to win de heart; 
Dere ain't no hokey-pokey cart, 
Dere ain't no chance to rush de can, 
Dere ain't no hurdy-gurdy man, 
Nor hook and ladder two-horse teams. 
But glory be, de lovely dreams! 
Oh, see dose dreams a-fiymg round, 
And never making of a sound; 
And some is black as hopping fleas, 
And some as big as bumble bees, 
And dose in red, dey sets de tone, 



198 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

As if dey was de devil's own. 

Oders have wings like peacock's eyes, 

And all de colors of de skies; 

And tru' dose wings de light-beams shiver 

Along de bosom of de river. 

And see dem tall, white fellers dere, 

Come slowly tro' de shinin' air, 

As if dey went a crooked road. 

I guess dat dey must have a load. 

Down on dere hands and knees dey sink, 

And bends de head to get a drink; 

And mid de poppies dey lies low, 

Like jags a-sleeping in a row. 

But what's de queerest of it all, 

I cannot hear dem when dey fall. 

Dey takes a drink, and den drops down 

Like guys on fedder-beds in town; 

De reeds and poppies nods dere head 

As do' dey'd like to go to bed. 

I did n't think of it at first 

But sure, I got an awful thirst; 

Oh, see the waters deep and still 

A flowin' from dat shinin' hill! 

I '11 get upon my hands and knees, 

And glory be! what's dis' I sees? 

A Spirit rises from the reeds in the river. She is 
clothed in the hues of twilight, and holds in her right 
hand a cup of gold, filled to the brim with river water. 

spirit (sings) 

Would you know the living joy 

Of another land? 
Take the beaker, little boy, 

Drink and understand. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 1 99 

CHORUS OF DREAMS 

Take the beaker in your hand, 

Pretty little boy, 
Yours it is to understand 

Innocence and joy — 
Innocence that fled from earth, 
Joy that knew not mortal birth. 

IvO, the cup is freighted now 

With our joys outpoured, 
All the love you did endow 

Unto you restored. 
All the love in mortal years 
Paid on earth with burning tears! 

BOY 

I '11 take a little, not too deep ; 
I 'd be awake and not asleep. 

CHORUS OP DREAMS 

Forget the trouble and the toil 

And all the ill that seems; 
Forget the city's wild turmoil, 

Remember only dreams. 
The hearts that ache, the hearts that fret, 
Their world, thy woes forget, forget! 

BOY 

I 'm wide awake in shinin' night, 

My foot is light, my heart is light. 

How did I happen to get here? 

Where did I come from? Aint it queer? 

Sure, I remember more and more 

Than ever I forgot before. 

But where and how and when and why 



2oo the; isles of gold 

I came, — dere is no use to try. 
I don't remember. Mudder dear, 
I only wish dat you was here. 

CHORUS OF DREAMS 

Thy mother dwells with birth and death 

Like the pale shades you see 
Who would not barter failing breath 

For immortality. 

When the)'- give over toil and strife, 

And all the woes they weep, 
There 's nothing left them in their life 

But everlasting sleep. 

They come white-robed, from every land 

And shrouded in their grief. 
The waters bear them on the strand, 

Deep peace and sweet relief. 

SPIRIT WITH CUP 

But theirs is not the joy 

like yours, my little boy 
In all the pleasures that immortals take. 

Amid the reeds and flowers 

They spend forgetful hours ; 
They sleep and sleep and nevermore awake. 

CHORUS OP DREAMS 

Lo, the beaker, little boy, 

In thine hand to take; 
Theirs is only sleepy joy, 

Thine is to awake. 



THE SECOND BIRTH SOI 



BOY 



I take de beaker in my hand; 
I drink and drink and understand. 
All Heaven is Fairyland for me; 
And Oh, de tall and handsome tree 
A-standing up against de sky, 
Wid yellow buds and flowers on high ! 
Over de reedy path I go ; 
Over dem sleepers lying low; 
And comin' underneat' de tree, 
Why, what is dat bright bird I see, 
Dat sits and waves his long green tail 
And sways upon de fragrant gale? 
I don't remember him no more, 
But, say, I seen dat bird before ! 

trogan (sings) 

Would you walk the ways along? 
Would you walk the poppies among? 

Tarry and tarry and tarry here, 

Pretty little boy, with eyeballs clear 
Tarry and listen to my song : 

Here upon the quinine tree, 
Buds and blossoms all among 

Hardly I perch upon the bough, 

Slowly I sway upon the bough; 

All the beautiful soul of me 
Pouring forth in marvellous song, 
Grand and beautiful song! 

Oh, the bark of the quinine tree 

Tells me why and tells me how! 

See my shadow bob and bow, 
Long and little, and little and long, 
Changing over the grasses green! 

Tell me, little one, am I now 



202 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

Not the prettiest bird you 've seen? 

See my shadow bob and bow, 
Changing over the grasses green! 
Long as a crane on tall tiptoe, 

Long as any scrawny crane! 

Then it changes back again 
Short and fat as parroquet, 

Or as bantam hen on eggs, 

Or as puffin with red legs, 
All too lovely to forget! 
See me over the grasses bend 
Tell me, tell me, little friend, 
Am I not the loveliest ever seen? 
Travel no more the ways along, 
Travel no more the poppies among; 

Pause and pause and hark and hark, 

Harken to the quinine's bark, 
Harken to the trogan's song! 

Liefer than the quinine's bark, 
Harken, harken, harken, to the trogan's song! 

BOY 

I hear de song dat comes from you 

Go, tell it to de birds. 
It don't say nuttin what to do, 

It 's just a lot of words 

TROGAN (sings) 

Over the world where men grow old, 

Calendar months go by; 
Ever too hot and ever too cold, 

Ever too moist and dry. 
In every land men gather together 
To talk about the dreadful weather. 
But there 's a fairyland for thee 



THE SECOND BIRTH 203 

Lies beyond the sapphire sea! 
Lion and tiger both go there, V 
Narwhal, auk and polar bear, 
Yellow mackaw to charm the ear, 
Antelope and tall reindeer, 
All as happy as happy can be, 
Far beyond the sapphire sea! 

VOICES 

Far, far away, 

Beyond the sapphire sea 
Children to play 

Are waiting for thee. 
There for your toys 

Are diamonds and pearls, 
Pretty little boys 

And pretty little girls. 

BOY 

Dere 's boys and girls at where you tell? 
I 'd like to go dere mighty well. 
Its lonesome here widout de boys 
And little girls to make a noise. 

TROGAN (sings) 

Flutter, flutter from the tree, 

Circle in the air. 
If you want to go with me, 

You have no time to spare. 
Hear me, hear me flutter and trill! 
Come away to the elfin hill, 
Where the summits rosy be 
Looking o'er the sapphire sea! 
More I cannot, cannot tell. 
Santa Claus he loves you well, 



204 THE ISLES OP GOLD 

Santa Claus he loves you well. 

(Trogan flies down path and Boy follows) 

BOY 

What are dose flowers doin' here, 
A-standing straight and stiff and queer? 

TROGAN (sings) 

Here they slumber, trusty flowers, 
Till the ending of the hours. 
Over all the listening land, 
Ready to wake at my command; 
Ready to pour, like mackerel shoal, 
Against old Humpy and the troll. 

BOY 

Old Humpy and the troll, what 's he? 

VOICE 

Give us leave and you will see. 

TROGAN (sings) 

Come, little boy, away, away! 

Folly, folly, folly to stay! 

Hear me, hear me, flutter and trill; 

Up you climb the elfin hill! 

Up you climb with foot and knee; 

I can fly from tree to tree. 

Would n't you like my wings to try? 

When I go 

High or low, 
I can flap my wings and fly. 
Would n't you like to be as I? 



The second birth 205 

BOY 

If I was you, and you was I, 

I 'd show you how birds ought to fly; 

I 'd show you how to do dem tings 

If I was born wid tail and wings. 

What 's dat upon de mountain|track 

Alone against de sky, all black, 

Wid muzzle pointed to de east? 

I tink it is a hairy beast. 

I hear a noise, a lonesome roar. 

voice 
It is the surf upon the shore. 

SECOND VOICE 

It is old Ocean in his caves. 

THIRD VOICE \ 

It is the music of the waves. 

TROGAN (sings) 

The sun peeps o'er the rim of the sea 

To wake the maiden day; 
To gild the baby lion and me, 

And light us on our way. 
The surf is like to distant drums! 
Oh, baby lion, he comes, he comes! 

BOY 

De baby lion stands up still 
Alone upon de elfin hill. 

LION 

Even when they 're good and sweet, 
Little boys, I never eat. 



206 THE ISLES OP GOLD 

VOICE 

Oh, little boy, who come along 
Drawn by the trogan and his song, 
Hark to my music, from the grove. 

TROGAN 

It is the voice of one I love. 

TROGAN 'S MOTHER (siflgs) 

Oh, boy, to birds a brother, 
Boy-brother of bright birds, 

Hark to the trogan's mother! 
Hark to the tuneful words! 

There 's a boat on the ocean 

Of the sapphire sea, 
Where a wonderful emotion 

Is waiting for thee. 

For thy glory and thy pleasure 
On the waters to ride; 

My little trogan for a treasure 
And a comfort and a guide. 

There 's an isle on the breast 

Of the sapphire sea, 
Where the joys of the blest 

Are waiting for thee. 

Trogan (sings) 

Quinine trees are plentiful there 

No more trouble to borrow; 
Nobody there to comb your hair, 



THE SECOND BERTH 207 

That will be to-morrow. 
Cocoanut trees all over the place 

No more trouble to borrow, 
Nobody there to wash your face, 

That will be to-morrow. 

AIvI, THREE 

More we cannot, cannot tell, 
Santa Claus he loves you well 

VOICES 

Gruffly mutter, for we must, — 
But our words are true and just, — 
In their promise put no trust, 
Child of frailty and dust. 
Lion's word and trogan's song 
Make a little boy go wrong. 
Trogan's song, lion's word, 
Addle headed beast and bird! 

THE TROGANS 

Back to your holes, back to your holes! 
You lie, you lie, you mountain trolls! 

voices {confused) 

Ha, ha, ha! ho, ho, ho! 
Say ye so, say ye so? 
Mother bird and baby bird, 
Give you back again the word. 

MOTHER TROGAN 

You dare not tell us that we lie. 

voices {confused) 
Rack and ruin utterly! 



208 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

MOTHER TROGAN 

Full well they know their mountain hall 
Would in a thousand fragments fall; 
For every stone to spoken lie 
Would vibrate in a sympathy. 

LION 

Come, little boy, let us away, 
Down to the ocean, ere noon day. 

TROGAN 

Lion, adown the mountain track, 
Bear thou the boy upon thy back. 

BOY 

Which way? 

UON 
Down here. 

BOY 

I would n't go. 

TROGAN 

You will be carried, sure and slow. 

UON 

Though somewhat steep the rocks incline, 
Here is a foothold. 

BOY 

Not in mine. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 209 

TROGAN 



Are you afraid? 



BOY 



You bet I am, 
Dese rocks will give us all de slam. 

MOTHER TROGAN 

Who braves no peril, gets no joy. 
Go to thy fate, O craven boy! 

(She flies off in anger) 

TROGAN 

Oh! here is ruin, here is harm! 

LION 

Yea, here is cause for just alarm; 
For when a soul doth doubt and fear, 
The lying troll again comes near! 

TROGAN 

The mountain rumbles loud and shakes; 
The rock beneath us cracks and quakes, 
Like roll of a titantic drum! 

UON 

The trolls are victors, and they come! 
We cannot now climb down the steep. 

TROGAN 

There is but time to fly or leap. 



2IO THE ISLES OF GOLD 

LION 

Little boy, there is one more chance; 
Valiant heart, may yet advance. 
Trust our honor, and they still 
Cannot harm thee if they will. 

TROGAN 

Leap down, leap down and have no fear ! 

LION 

The trolls alone are danger here. 

BOY 

I guess I 'd make a lonesome lump, 
If I did go to take a jump ; 
I 'd rudder have the trolls around, 
Than fall upon de rocky ground. 

TROGAN 

Do you fear the leap to see, 
Close your eyes and follow me. 

(Trogan flutters down) 

LION 

Still do you fear to stub your toes, 
Then down the precipice, here goes. 

(Lion leaps) 

BOY 

Oh, stop, stop, stop! 

VOICE 

What a . leap! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 211 

SECOND VOICE 

The rock is hard, the cliff is steep. 

THIRD VOICE 

The sea below is cold and deep. 

FIRST VOICE 

Under the billows monotones, 
The marrow freezes in their bones. 

SECOND VOICE 

They beat their brains out on the stones. 

FIRST VOICE 

The hill is high and nothing low. 

THIRD VOICE 

The boy was wise, and would not go. 

FOURTH VOICE 

See his tear-drops, how they flow, 

Out of either eye! 
Come around, would you know 

How these mortals cry! 

FIFTH VOICE 

Have you sorrow, being wise? 

SIXTH VOICE 

Look at us materialize. 

SEVENTH VOICE 

Why sit you here and make your moan? 



212 THE ISLES OE GOLD 

BOY 

We all has troubles of our own. 

Oh, baby beast and bird, good-bye! 

I had forgotten how to cry. 

Dey come! dey come! de dreadful shapes 

Like owls and ravens, bears and apes! 

And, oh, I hate to see 'em round! 

I wish dey all was under ground! 

TROLLS 

Out of caverns and of rocks, 

Out from under stones and stocks, 

Out of cloud-burst in the air, 

Like to frogs, down we rain; 
And our hordes go here and there, 

Over forest, peak and plain; 
On the glaciers, by the fjords, 
We the victors, we the lords! 

A LOUD VOICE 

Do not shiver, little boy! 

Greater shame thou shalt be shent; 
For the king will soon enjoy 

Torture of thy punishment! 

ANOTHER VOICE 

Old Humpy comes, the son of the king, 
And Tron, with the long, red nose! 

And loud the horns and trumpets ring, 

Old Humpy comes, the son of the king! 

And loud his marshalled armies sing 
On the bitter wind that blows: 

"Make way for Humpy, son of the king, 
And Tron, with the long, red nose!" 
{Fanfare of trumpets; the tramping of many feet.) 



THE SECOND BIRTH 213 

army (sings) 

Old Humpy, he comes 

With fifes and drums 
And Tron, with the long, red nose; 

They call and call, 

To their merry men all, 
"Ho! ho!" when the north wind blows, 

The hoar frost whines 

On the shivering pines; 
And the gray wolf over the grave; 

And the landslide sweeps 

Adown the steeps 
To trouble the storm-tossed wave. 

The hunter so bold, 

He feels the cold, 
And frantic he winds his horn; 

We'll freeze him stiff, 

On the seaward cliff, 
In the pallid light of morn. 
And the shepherd and flocks, 

Among the rocks 
When once his path is crossed; 

No more they'll graze, 

In the reddening rays, 
And he and his dogs are lost. 

When Tron he blows 

His long, red nose, 
There 's thunder across the seas ; 

And trembles the whole 

Of the frozen pole, 
Way down to the Hebrides. 

And our king in his hold, 

From his bowl of gold, 
Drinks deep to his absent thanes. 

Strong ale he quaffs 

And loud he laughs 



214 the; isles of gold 

And snug as a bug remains; 

For his kingdom is strong 

And his arm is long, 
To harry all hateful times 

When men bow down 

To knave and clown 
And fraud and force and crimes. 

Strong ale he quaffs, 

And loud he laughs, 
"Ho! ho!" when the North Wind blows, 

And Humpy, he comes 

With fifes and drums, 
And Tron, with the long, red nose. 

Enter army with Humpy and Tron 

HUMPY 

That little boy, the deadly foe 
Unto my father? 

TRON 

Even so. 

HUMPY 

A worm to crush under our heel, 
His only power the pang to feel. 

FIRST TROLL 

Fear makes him dumb. 

SECOND TROLL 

His cheek is pale. 

HUMPY 

Let there be silence on the gale. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 215 

tron (to Boy) 

The mountain king glad greeting sends, 
For doubt and fear are still his friends; 
And he commands you over all 
To come inside his wassail hall. 

HUMPY 

Speak, for you must. 

BOY 

I 'd like to die. 

TRON 

We can do anything we try. 

HUMPY 

The body lies upon the bed, 

The fire burns low, the soul is fled. 

TRON 

Yea, thou shalt dwell among the dead. 

HUMPY 

Or come with us. 

TRON 

Without more talk. 

BOY 

Dead fellers cannot run or walk. 

TRON 

I '11 carry you, where the north wind blows 



2l6 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

Up on my nose, up on my nose ! 
See, 't is red as any rose, 
Like the living coals it glows! 

BOY 

I won't get up. 

Tron {beckoning to his men) 

Come to my side, 
Lift up the boy, set him astride, 
And give him just a little whiff. 

BOY 

I '11 jump ! oh ! oh ! 

TRON 

He 's frozen stiff 
Full soon a longer leap you '11 take, 
Enough to make your belly ache. 

HUMPY 

My child, you need not be afraid, 
For as of iron, you are made. 

TRON 

We stay too long, my throat doth parch 
For the king's ale. 

HUMPY 

Yea, forward march. 

trolls 
The mountain spreads in fissure wide, 



The second birth 217 

The mountain rumbles loud inside, 
And under foot and over head. 

BOY 

De baby lion, he 's all dead. 
He 'd bite you well, you ugly troll. 

TRON 

Now, little boy, you see that hole? 
Into its depths my nose I poke — 

HUMPY 

Yea, Tron will have his little joke. 

TRON 

Scratch you off, and down you go, 
Ha! ha! ha! 

HUMPY 

Ho! ho! ho! 

TROLLS 

Ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho! ho! 
Down you go! down you go! 
Oh, you feared to take a fall 

Off the precipice to leap; 
Now you 've got one after all 

Down inside the mountain deep! 
You shall bear the wassail bowls 
At the drinking of the trolls. 
Ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho! 
Down you go! down you go! 
Shriek the wind, and hiss the rain ! 

Oh, the tumult and the joys 



2l8 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

Of the sudden hurricane, 
And the avalanche's noise! 
Ho, for Humpy! Ho, for Tron! 
Ho, for the king on his iron throne! 
Go down, go down 
To the king and his crown 
In his glory all alone! 



ACT II 

Banquet hall of the Mountain King. Dais at end, 
where sits the King on his iron throne. The roof of the 
hall above the dais, is cracked; and in the fissure, clings 
the little Boy. 

boy 

Oh, what an awful fall I 've had! 

My head and heart they feel so bad! 

And, oh! dat room, wid cut stone wall, 

And devils' faces over all ! 

For sure dey's all like devils here, 

Dey grins and scowls and looks so queer! 

And dat old guy, a-sitting down, 

Wid whiskers and big ears and crown, 

I tink he 's head of all de gang; 

And here above his head I hang. 

Trolls (sing) 

Hoorray! hoorray! 

Drink to the king! 
Hoorray! hoorray! 

Ting-a-ling, ling! 

Drink to the king 

Ting-a-ling, ling, 

The king! the king! 

king 

We are uneasy and our throne 
Rumbles and totters; we alone 



220 THE ISLES OF GOIyD 

The craft and secret malice know, 

And all the venom of our foe. 

Our banquet cavern rocks and shakes, 

The mountain yawns, the round earth quakes. 

Enter Humpy and Tron with retinue 

KING 

How now, Old Humpy? 

HUMPY 

Ho! ho! ho! 
There 's not a vestige of the foe. 

KING 

That you feared most. 

HUMPY 

Not I, but Tron, 
He gave such counsel to the throne. 
His long, red nose, without a doubt, 
He thought had smelled a foeman out. 
And you, the drum across your ear, 
Trembled the foeman's tread to hear. 
But both, O gracious sire! did make, 
With nose and ear a grand mistake! 

PARTY OF TROIvIvS (sing) 

Hoorray! hoorray! 

Drink to the king! 
Hoorray! Hoorray! 

Ting-a-ling, ling, 

Ting-a-ling, ling, 

Good old king. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 221 



FIRST TROLL 



Good old king, 
He 's got one eye. 

ALL 

Ting-a-ling, ling! 

SECOND TROW, 

Hoorray for the eye! 

THIRD TROLL 

And his mouth is awry! 

ALL 

Drink to the king! 
The king! the king! 

first troll (feebly) 
Good old king! 

king (to Humpy) 
What did you find? 

HUMPY 

Only a boy. 



A what? 



KING 
HUMPY 

A child. 



222 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

THIRD TROLL 

O joy! O joy! 
A nice, ripe, juicy, roasting child! 

TRON 

He 's in cold storage, don't get wild, 
I froze him. 

KING 

Then he's safe outside, 
And frozen stiff? so let him bide! 
What 's that up in my skylight there? 
It dangles by a single hair. 

SECOND TROLL 

Only a shadow on the wall. 

KING 

Over my throne the shadows fall. 

FIRST TROLL 

Sire, the royal ale I fear 

Hath made the royal eyesight queer. 

KING 

Olaf, where 's Olaf ? loggerhead! 
Bring me my whip! 

TRON 

In the thong's stead 
You 'd make a good impression, sire, 
On Olaf 's back with copper wire. 

(Olaf is dragged before the king) 



THE SECOND BIRTH 223 

KING 

You snivelling drudge, here, get a broom, 
And sweep that spider from my room! 

olaf (grumbling and whining) 

That 's what I get, and all I get, 
After long years of toil and sweat. 

SECOND trow, 
Olaf working? Day of days! 

OLAF 

How that spider sticks and stays! 

KING 

Sweep it off, and let it fall. 

OLAF 

Sure, it will not come at all. 

FIRST TROLL 

Give my spear, with point to prick, 
Then we '11 see it if will stick. 

KING 

Give the sorry sweeping o'er. 

ALL 
Lo, 't is fallen on the floor! 

SECOND TROLL 

See it sprawl! 



224 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

HUMPY 

A pretty toy! 
A living, breathing little boy! 

KING 

Lift him up and set him there 
Hard beside me on the chair; 
And pray, good sir, will you begin 
And tell us why you have dropped in? 

TRON 

He cannot speak; he's blue with cold. 

KING 

And here must be our foeman bold, 
So young, so frail? What power is there 
To shake my kingdom unaware? 
Nay, 't was another. Set him down! 
He is unworthy of our frown. 
And bring him ale, and bring him bread; 
I '11 thaw the tongue inside his head! 

trolls (sing) 

Good old ale, good old beer, 
Brewed in the vats of yester year! 
It brewed very long, 
And it grew very strong! 
Hoorray for the ale and the beer! 

Say we guzzle, if you wish; 

Rant and tear your hair! 
When we all are liquorish, 

We don't care! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 225 

We don't care 
For anybody there; 
When we all are liquorish 
We don't care! 

Drink to women and gold to win! 

Drink to the cloven hoof! 
Drink to the devil and glorious sin! 

Whoop and raise the roof! 

Let the tempest howl and bawl 

And smite the hillside bare! 
When we all are at the brawl, 

We don't care! 

We don't care 

Whatever may be there; 
When we all are at the brawl, 

We don't care! 

king {to Boy) 

You tremble, silent little friend; 
Good ale and merry cheer must blend 
To loose your tongue. 

BOY 

Oh, oh! I'm cold! 

KING 

But here the fire burns bright and bold. 

voice {in the air) 

You cannot warm you at their fires; 

For these are fed by lost desires, 

And all vain faiths by men most prized, 



2 26 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

And all high hopes unrealized; 
For though these all like tinder burn, 
Their flame is cold as funeral urn 
To any man who doth entreat 
The baneful magic of their heat. 

KING 

Give good ale to old and young; 
It warms the heart and thaws the tongue. 
Why did you come upon our way? 
Speak, I command. 

BOY 

Late yesterday, 
Dere 's some one carried me out here 
Away from home an' mudder dear! 
An' dere 's a baby beast and bird, 
About a happy land they heard 
Across a handsome sapphire sea; 
And both was going, and taking me, 
And — 

KING 

Have some ale, 't is ripe and sweet. 

TRON 

And share a little of our meat. 

BOY 

Why, dis is like a drink I had 
I don't remember, 't aint so bad, 
And so dis baby bird and beast — 



THE SECOND BIRTH 227 

TRON 

Here is your meat whereon to feast. 
(A silver dish is brought to the boy) 

BOY 

Dey and de trogan's mudder and I 
Up where de mountain is most high, 
All got togedder — 

KING 

Pile your plate, 
Frogs' legs are always delicate. 
So. 

BOY 

Thank you kindly, dat will do. 
And on dat mountain — 

KING 

Two by two — 

BOY 

Yes, four of us. Why, what's de matter? 

KING 

My dainties do not love your chatter. 

BOY 

Dey 's hoppin' like dey was alive. 

king (with emphasis) 
As sure as two and two make five — 



228 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

BOY 

Make four, you mean. 

GUST 

They leap ! 

TRON 

They bound! 

king (severely) 
Your calculation is unsound. 

boy (aside) 

Dose hoppin' legs I wouldn't eat, 
Not if I never had no meat. 

KING 

My counsellors will answer you 
What is the sum of two and two. 

TROLLS 

Five. 

TRON 

All is quiet on the plate. 

HUMPY 

Yea, that 's the way to calculate. 

TRON 

For one and one — 

BOY 

Is alius two. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 229 

TRON 

Yet if you reason as we do, 

I think you '11 heartily agree 

That one and one are sometimes three; 

For when a certain kind of sin 

Twixt one and one would fain slip in — 

Your father and mother, one and one, 

Taken together had a son. 

So add these two and so shall come 

The number five. 

HUMPY 

The devil's sum! 

BOY 

You — you — my mudder — 

KING 

Don't you stir! 

TRON 

Don't lose your temper, my dear sir! 

FIRST TROIvI, 

Look at him frozen on his chair! 

SECOND TROLL 

Look at him choke in anger there! 

KING 

My little guest, bear it in mind 
And peace and plenty you shall find 
And even get to power and glory, 



230 the isles of gold 

If you will hearken to the story 
That two and two — 



BOY 

Is alius four. 
(Legs hop. Distant thunder.) 

KING 

Make always either less or more. 
Then quiet lies your dainty dish, 
Ready for eating at your wish. 
I say that two and two make five, 
And I and all my vassals thrive; 
For here we have the saving clause 
Of all our manners and our laws. 
But if you hold these figures err, 
Why, one or three you can prefer, 
Or seven or nine — 

BOY 

And all is lies. 

ALL 

Thunder, thunder from the skies, 
How it rumbles, cracks, and crashes! 
Oh, the hiss of lightning flashes! 

BOY 

The wall is caving now, like din 
And de stone devils twist and grin, 
And how dese living devils howls! 
And how his royal nibs he scowls, 
When four is made from two and two! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 23 1 

KING 

You are — you say what is not true ! 
My sceptre trembles and my crown. 
Rise, my merry men! strike him down! 
With the gleaming of your swords, 
Make him swallow his vile words! 
Make him own his words are foul! 
Smite and cleave him, cheek and jowl! 

HUMPY 

Lo, I lift my sword elate! 

I warrant it will break your pate. 

TRON 

Tell us now his hand to stay, 
Two and two are five alway! 

KING 

Tell us, if you 'd be alive, 
Two and two are always five! 

boy (screams in terror) 
King of the trolls, you lie, lie, lie! 

TROIXS 

Ruin! ruin from the sky! 

(Thunder bursts; one of the walls caves in bodily; 
sunlight streams into the hall.) 

KING 

Ruin, ruin from the sky! 
Sunlight, sunlight from on high! 
O'er my throne the shadows fall 



332 THB ISLES OF GOLD 

Deeper than a funeral pall! 
For my kingdom and my crown 
Smite the little bastard down! 

HUMPY 

Ho! ho! 

TRON 

Dost wait upon the stroke? 
Smite! 

KING 

Smite him down! 

HUMPY 

My sword is broke! 
The sword I wield, is broke in twain! 

BOY 

You wid de nose, you lie again 
About my mudder, free from stain! 

TROLLS 

The fire is faint and the lamps are few; 

And over the wall the shadows go! 
The fire is red and the lamps burn blue; 

The fire is dim and the lamps burn low; 

And our kingdom draws to its overthrow! 

{The song of birds) 

KING 

Ruin, ruin! where 's my sword? 
Oh, that little voice abhorred! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 233 

TROIXS 

Close our eyes and close our ears 
For the sunlight peeps and peers; 
And upon the beam of light 
Worse than anguish of old night, 
All too dreadful to be heard, 
Comes the twitter of a bird! 

trogan (invisible, sings) 

Hear me, hear me flutter and trill! 
You can see me when you will. 
Hear me, hear me, flutter my wing; 
Thaw you out, I merrily sing! 
How the stones in hurry and rush 
Rumble and tumble and fall and crush! 
How the myriad sunbeams play! 
How the frogs' legs caper away! 
Hear me flutter and hear me trill! 
How the trolls run out of the hill! 
Forward, forward! Soldier flowers! 
'T is the ending of the hours! 

voices of flowers (in the distance) 

Rub-a-dub-a-dub ! 
Rub-a-dub-a-dub ! 
Rub-a-dub-a-dub ! 

We come, we come ! 
We are the flowers 
At the ending of the hours 

And we march to the sound of a 
drum, drum, drum! 

Rub-a-dub-a-dub { 
Rub-a-dub-a-dub ! 
Rub-a-dub-a-dub ! 



234 TH E ISLES OF GOLD 

The raindrops go. 
Patter, patter, patter! 
'T is a mighty matter 
To batter, batter, batter 

The frozen snow. 

And under our feet, the glad grass springs; 

And over our head the rainbow beams; 
And hither and yon the sea-wind sings 

Of truth and the triumph of nobler dreams. 

For the sunlight tells to the wakening plain, 
And the torrent roars to the wondering sea, 

What a heart desires, a heart shall gain, 
When Love is at dawn, and the world is free ! 

TROLLS 

Ho, for the biting sleet and hail! 
Ho, for the ice and freezing gale ! 
Bang the drum and screech the fife, 
For we fight for life, life, life! 

{They rush out in tumult. Sound of battle, near at 
first, and then far off. Enter Lion hurriedly.) 

lion 

Oh! at last I cannot choose 
But roar for joy! 

TROGAN 

Quick, quick! What news? 

LION 

The trolls, hooroo! They 're put to rout! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 235 

BOY 

Dey ain't done much to talk about! 

LION 

Ere they follow on our track, 
Little boy, get on my back. 

TROLLS 

Ruin, ruin! lord and master! 
Ruin, ruin and disaster! 

Humpy and Tron, 

Humpy and Tron 

Utterly, utterly overthrown! 
Shrieking down the wind we go, 
Scattered! scattered! woe! woe! woe! 

king (in the distance) 

Rally your ranks and stand again 
Lords of the northern hurricane! 
Frozen hearts whate'er betide, 
God alone will crush our pride! 

LION 

Gallop and gallop and gallop along, 
Unto the flowers' victory song! 

FLOWERS (in the distance) 

For the loves that yesterday all were fled 
Return on the morrow at blush of morn; 

And the hope of a world that is past and dead 
Is the promise of nations yet unborn. 

Glory at noon when the hills are green, 
And a living glory across the sea! 

And the hope of a world that once hath been 
Is the joy of a world that is yet to be ! 



236 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

LION 

Lo, the waters of the sea! 
Life and joy and liberty! 

BOY 

Where 's de boat? 

UON 

On the other strand 
It will carry us all inland 
Down a clear and calm canal, 
To our Christmas festival. 

trolls (in the distance) 

Everywhere our path is crossed; 
The little boy is lost, lost, lost! 
Melted ice and melted snow! 
Wind and water! woe! woe! woe! 



ACT III 

The open sea. Lion swims slowly with Boy on back. 
Trogan flies slowly overhead. 

voices 

for the vast and sunlit sea 
That whispers of eternity! 

The noonday sun is bright and high; 
There 's not a cloud upon the sky; 
The ocean swell is long and slow; 
And the light breezes come and go, 
Even as our gentler spirits creep 
Into the depths of dreamless sleep. 

TROGAN 

Lion, lion! look at the land! 
Look at the far and gleaming strand! 
Paddle your feet and soon you '11 find 
All your labor left behind! 

LION 

Ah! my feet not far from land 
Tread upon the welcome sand! 

BOY 

1 guess we got here now all right. 

UON 

Overhead the sun is bright; 
But ere it rises on your day 
Poor little boy, you must away. 



238 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

Trogan (sings) 

Climb and climb and leap and fly 
Over the island high and dry! 
All the rivers are made of milk; 
All the flowers are made of silk! 
From the branches overhead 
Pluck the pendant gingerbread; 
If you 've taken cold at sea, 
Here is a comely quinine tree. 

BOY 

Why, sure de gingerbread is fine; 
But for dat udder, not in mine! 
An' where is all de girls an' boys? 
I did n't hear 'em make no noise. 
An' what is dem tings three an' three 
A walking down upon de sea, 
Wid heads like what I never seen 
An' short hind legs an' tails between? 
An' one of 'em dives off kerswish, 
An' now he comes up wid a fish. 

UON 

And where 's the boat and the canal 
To take us to the festival? 

TROGAN 

There 's the canal in the evergreens ; 
The boat, I '11 ask the rosmarines. 
Tell me, tell me, rosmarine. 
Ever changing black and green, 
Tell me now and tell me true, 
Climbing cliffs for morning dew, 
Where the golden boat may be 
Sailing on the sapphire sea? 



THE SECOND BIRTH 239 



ROSMARINUS 



The boat has come upon the strand; 
The boat is gone afar from land; 
But whether this be ill or well, 
We cannot tell, we cannot tell. 



BOY 



An' down along de beach dey go, 
An' dere ain't nuttin dat dey know. 



TROGAN 



Still we have to do and dare; 
Still we have our way to fare. 
Down the winding path we go 
Where the cocoanut bushes grow. 

WON 

Iyook at the wide and shining gate. 
It stops your path. 

BOY 

I tink we '11 wait. 
It 's cruel hard, dat lonesome door. 
What 's all dese knubs? 

VOICE 

'T is studded o'er 
With your former doubts and fears; 
And every knob outbraves the years 
Whereby the gate is stubborn strong. 

LION 

Alas! the journey hath gone wrong. 



240 the ISLES OE GOLD 

TROGAN 

Oh! let me fly 

To the quinine tree! 
And there I '11 cry 
In a minor key! 
Hear me, hear me sob and cry! 
Sorrow, sorrow! let me die! 
Fateful moment! horrible morn! 
Poor little boy from his mother torn! 

WON 

We came too late, we came too late! 

BOY 

I tink I '11 push dat knubby gate. 
I 've had enough o' stoppin' now. 

HON 

'T is closed against you with a vow. 

BOY 

I '11 push it all de same. 

VOICE 

Who knocks? 

BOY 

What's dat? a hurdy-gurdy box? 
De gate goes back, an' O de sound! 
Why, dere is music all around! 
An' all is light, an' glory be! 
De little children comes to me! 
O little children at de gate! [f 
A long, long time I had to wait! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 24 1 

children (sing) 

Who may this gentle spirit be 

Who comes afar? 
Come to the living Christmas tree 

And the morning star. 
Merry, merry the welcome sing! 
Merry, merry in everything! 
Come away! come away! 
Happy, happy all the day! 
Here 't is never hot or cold; 
Here the children never grow old; 
But in the light of love and truth 
We dwell in playtime of glad youth. 
Happy, happy, happy to be, 
Before the living Christmas tree! 
More we cannot, cannot tell. 
Santa Claus, he loves you well. 

BOY 

Where is de baby bird an' beast? 
Sure dey 's all comin' to de feast ! 
Here, here! come here! 

WON AND TROGAN 

Farewell! farewell! 
More we cannot, cannot tell! 

VOICE of lion 

Sometimes upon the golden shore 
You 11 see me gambol and hear me roar. 
But longer here I cannot bide, 
Nor wholly share your Christmas-tide. 



242 THF, ISLES OF GOLD 

BOY 

Good bye, you lion! soon again 
I '11 stroke you on de curly mane. 

VOICE} OF TROGAN 

Little boy, afar I go 

Where quinine tree and cocoanuts grow; 

But some fine day you '11 visit me 

And climb upon the quinine tree. 

More I cannot, cannot tell. 

Dear little friend, farewell, farewell! 

children (sing) 

the glory of our hall! 
The living tree is over all! 
Crash the music, crash and blare! 
L/O, the wide and shining stair! 
Ascend! ascend! and make your pause 
Before the throne of Santa Claus! 

SANTA CLAUS 

Hello, my hearty! 

BOY 

Is dat you? 
Why den you must be real and true, 
And I can climb upon your knee. 

SANTA CLAUS 

And, lo, the living Christmas tree! 

BOY 

1 'd ought to have been here sooner. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 243 

SANTA CI.AUS 

Aye, 
'T is but a brief space a soul can stay, 
Who doth the mortal body leave. 
'T is nearly past, your Christmas eve, 
And in the city shall be born 
Full soon, the joy of Christmas morn. 

BOY 

De city? What 's de city? 

SANTA CI.AUS 

Pray, 
Still to forget till dawn of day 
And turn your eyes in jollity 
Upon the living Christmas tree; 
Over its top from earth afar, 
Trembles with hope the morning star, 
So near to us, so far from them, 
The morning star of Bethlehem. 
Yea, speak your will, and even now 
It blooms before you on the bough. 

BOY 

But look, beneath the Christmas tree 
De boys and girls dat came for me! 
Why does de little children stand, 
All holdin' out an empty hand? 

SANTA CLAUS 

After thy wish, 't will be their turn; 
Till then they all must wait and yearn; 
For on the earth, their lives entire 
Were never balked of heart's desire. 



244 TH E ISLES OF GOLD 

BOY 

Why, den i wish dey'd get it now! 

CHORUS OF CHILDREN 

Oh, the toys upon the bough, 
Fruit and flowers for our joys! 
Pretty, pretty, pretty toys! 
Hold your dress, or they '11 be hurt, 
Tumbling down in dust and dirt! 
Blocks and picture-books and dolls, 
Barley candy, fol-de-rols, 
Silken hose and pretty boys' ties, 
Grapes and raisins and mince pies, 
Cotton flannel dog that pants, 
Cotton flannel elephants, 
Train of cars with truly steam, 
Automobile and four-horse team, 
Jumping- jacks, and, goody, goody! 
Fifty shows of Punch and Judy! 
Is n't it lovely, isn't it fine, 
Isn't it really life divine? 
Who would go to say their prayers, 
Up and down the golden stairs; 
Take a harp and chant a hymn, 
Mid adoring cherubim? 
Here we stay, day by day, 
Heaven for us is ever to play! 

SANTA CLAUS 

You make them happy, all in all, 
And crown their Christmas carnival! 
But still you look with longing eyes. 
O, little child who hast grown wise ! — 
For sorrow bringeth wisdom, — how 
Shall any gift fall from the bough 



THE SECOND BIRTH 245 

For thee, who knowest not how to play, 

Knowing the pain of night and day? 

Lo, unto thee, a second birth 

Comes knowledge of the heavens and earth ! 

Then shall thy play be joyful wild 

As any other little child. 

BOY 

What is dat great, big shiny ball 

Dat rises here inside your hall? 

I tink it must be made of ice, 

Only the colors is more nice. 

Dey twist and turn and round dey wind, 

All bright enough to make you blind. 

SANTA ClyAUS 

Within that crystal you can see 

What is and was and is to be. 

With steady gaze, put forth your will, 

The colors blend in pictures, till 

You break the spell, and let them range 

Like human dreams that fade and change. 

Be steady, now! 

BOY 

De colors die! 

SANTA CLAUS 

A small black alley greets the eye 

Unlighted by the fitful glare 

Of gas-lamps dimly burning there. 

And down the dark, uneven street, 

That cleanseth not in cold or heat, 

Shivers a solitary form, 

Wrapped in a shawl to brave the storm. 



246 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

It is the city whence you come; 
'T is all too near your earthly home! 
Why doth the quick desire return, 
Where human hearts must always yearn 
And leave the loves beyond the skies, 
And raptures of our paradise? 
For now the woman in the shawl 
Doth plunge into the glare and brawl, 
Of crowded street and bustling square; 
A silent shadow, hurrying there 
Amid the buzzing of the crowd, 
The shout and jest and laughter loud, 
As by the lighted stores they go, 
And push each other to and fro, 
Eager for plunder never gained, 
And hearts' desires all unattained, 
And under ripe or rotten joys, 
For men and women, girls and boys. 
They spurn the wisdom of clear skies, 
The conquering love that never dies. 
Though love and wisdom hold the key 
To prison all that infamy. 
But men are cowards, nothing bold; 
They cheat and lie for love of gold. 
Amid the pangs of mortal birth 
It is Hell's viceroy rules on earth; 
And stark and strong abideth still, 
The troll king in his hollow hill. 
Wilt thou, being wise, for what men strive 
Return on earth and be alive? 
Wouldst thou return to taste the pain 
Of poverty and life again? 

BOY 

I 'd rudder die dan go down dere, 



/ 



THE SECOND BIRTH 247 

Wid sin and suffering everywhere. 
Dis life is better dan dat udder; — 
But what will happen to my mudder? 
My mudder, wrapped inside dat shawl, 
She 's down among 'em in it all! 
I want you, oh, my mudder dear! 

SANTA CLAUS 

Nay, she shall follow ere New Year. 
Look! she ascends a narrow stair; 
And two strong men a burden bear 
Behind her. Look! the little room, 
The lowly bed all wrapped in gloom, 
The little form upon the bed! 
It is thy body, lying dead. 
Bend o'er the crystal with thine ear, 
Thou canst their earthly grieving hear. 

Boy bends over the crystal and listens to 

The Epilogue. 



EPILOGUE 

mother {entering room) 

To all the saints may glory be! 

Sure, Mr. Goodman's given a tree, 

And all the fixin's fresh and new! 

Candles and gilt contraptions too, 

And paper moons and paper stars, 

And decorated ginger jars, 

And dolls that goes to sleep and cries! 

Och! sure, 't will be the grand surprise! 

The little shadder on de bed, 

Poor, tired, little sleepy head! 

Shut de door softly, when you go. 

I '11 put de spangled, cotton snow 

All round de roots. Whose at de dure? 

Why, dat is Father Brady, sure! 

Enter Priest 

God bless ye, Father, look and see! 

PRIEST 

Why, what a splendid Christmas tree! 
No money could be better spent. 

MOTHER 

Sure, Mr. Goodman had it sent. 

PRIEST 

Ah, God on all his blessing sends 

And man will sometimes make amends. 



THE SECOND BIRTH 249 



I came to tell you, my poor soul, 
A rich man gave three tons of coal 
Into my charge, and you 're the one 
That 's going to burn up every ton. 

MOTHER 

May God in glory get the praise! 

Dere 's no more long, cold nights and days 

PRIEST 

Warm as your heart. 

MOTHER 

And, glory be! 
The fine an' elegant Christmas tree. 

PRIEST 
Hitch on the little candles, so! 

MOTHER 

And the glass ice and cotton snow 
And here 's de doll, of finest wax 
Wid hair as smooth as yellow flax, 
And hobby horse — 

PRIEST 

I '11 strike a light 
To make the little candles bright; 
And now the game is just begun. 

MOTHER 

Wake up, wake up, my little son! 
An' is it sleeping you would be? 
I '11 have to get to shakin' ye, 



25O THE ISLES OP GOLD 

And Father Brady waitin' here! 

Respect the holy father dear! 

Come, wake, wake, WAKE! Why don't you stir? 

Come over here, good, reverend sir 

And rouse my boy! His hands is cold! 

His eyes is open, starin' bold 

At nuttin' ! — Ah, his mouth 's agape ! 

Oh, sure, he 's jokin' in his slape! 

Wake, in the Holy Virgin's name! 

Don't look like dat, for very shame! 

Your mother knalin' on the floor, 

An' — 

FATHER BRADY 

Quiet, quiet! all is o'er. 

MOTHER 

You martyrs that in glory be, 
Look down on me and pity me! 
De misery and shame I 'm in 
De wild, wild love, de woman's sin, 
De man all safe, and married too! 
And me cast off like an old shoe ! 
And my poor, only little boy, 
De only image of my joy, 
He too, he too, has got to go ! 

FATHER BRADY 

My daughter, it is better so. 



Santa claus {shading his eyes with his hand) 

The crystal bursts, the life is done! 
The mother hastens to her son! 
The blinding light is everywhere; 
Lo! 't is the granting of thy prayer! 



THE SECOND BIRTH 25 1 

VOICES 

Now fades the night on Christmas morn 
When fly the shadows from daylight, 

And promise of a hope unborn. 
For sure as day shall follow night 
Somewhere, somehow is wrong made right. 

Oh, for the far-off Christmas time 
When every one on earth shall find 

In other souls, the sense sublime 

That Pride and Hate are trebly blind 
In sight of Love for all mankind! 

Come, Widsom, robed in queenly state 
And conquering Love that never dies! 

Welcome on earth from Heaven's gate 
For mighty voices cleave the skies 
In triumph of loud harmonies! 



THE PRIZE OF UFE 



'Thou wast all that to me, love, 
For which my soul did pine: 
A green isle in the sea, love, 
A fountain and a shrine." 

Edgar Aiaen Poe. 



The Persons 

The Boy 
The Girl 
The Trogan 
The Quesel 
The Curucui 

Scene : A grassy dell overshadowed by a tall and 
drooping evergreen, under the base of which issues a spring 
of sweet water. To the east a stony bluff overhangs the 
sea. Time: a Lifetime. 



ACT I 

Daybreak in the early Spring 

trogan (sings) 

Here I carol and carol all day; 
Here I warble and warble alway; 
Here I warble and carol and sway 

All upon the evergreen tree! 
Here I warble and warble my song 
Loud and lovely, loud and long; 
Whether you think it right or wrong 

Oh! it is all alike to me! 
Whether you go or whether you stay, 
Or take my words in a merry play, 
Or take my words in a solemn way, 

Oh! it is all alike to me! 
Trogan, trogan, hearty and hale, 

On the beautiful evergreen tree! 
Over the hill and over the dale 

Wells my liquid melody! 
Oh! my melody wells and wells 
Like the toll of wedding bells, 
Bells of silver and bells of gold 
To sound the mighty loves of old, — 
That ring and clang, that ring and clang 
As in the brazen tower they hang, 
That clang and ring, that clang and ring 
To hail the nuptials of a king! 
'T is thus I sing, 't is thus I sing! 

In melody wells the soul of me! 



254 THE ISI.ES OP GOU> 

I tell of triumph in everything, 
Unending joy and victory! 

Enter Quesei< and Curucui flying from opposite 
directions 

CURUCUI 

That carol hath a noble tone. 
The sentiment is all mine own. 

QUESEL 

I came to hear, I came to see 
His beauty and his melody. 

TROGAN 

You come with joy, you come with light. 
I pray you take an upward flight. 
The evergreen tree, you '11 find very high ; 
Over the top to fly and fly. 

CURUCUI 

'T is well to contemplate the sky. 

QUESEL 

I hop and I hop 

From bough to bough. 
I am going to stop 

On this one now. 
Oh, the branch is bare 

Both high and low! 
'T was different there 

Long years ago. 

CURUCUI 

The quesel feels his age to-day 



THE PRIZE OE WEE 255 

He hath no mind for sportive play; 

But hearken to the voice of him 

For wisdom shines when eyes are dim. 

QUESEL 

My feathers are gray 
That once were blue 

Whatever I say 
Is always true. 
And as the mortal days go by 
I meditate and prophesy. 
As sure as time and fate shall last 
Too much hath happened in the past; 
And sure as men are always men, 
There 's more to happen now as then ; 
And sure as the sun illumes the moon, 
Something is going to happen soon; 
As sure as souls be born again, 
There 's too much pleasure and too much pain. 

TROGAN 

Upon my word! Upon my word, 
The quesel is a melancholy bird! 

CURUCUI 

The shamed East is blushing red 
O'er the white plume upon his head. 

TROGAN 

And o'er the wide and shining sea 
A child is coming to our tree. 

CURUCUI 

Upon the bluff before the hill 



256 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

She stops a moment, biding still; 
The wind doth rustle through her dress 
And in a happy wantonness 
Tangles the yellow of her hair — 

TROGAN 

And blows it o'er her shoulders bare. 
Now! Now she turns! 

CURUCUI 

Her eyes are blue; 
Her cheeks are of a roseate hue — 

TROGAN 

Save where the dainty turn-up nose 
Is more the lily than the rose. 

QUESEL 

Yellow and blue 

And rose and pink, 
There 's color for you 

To stop and think! 
'T is trouble and fright, 

As I suppose, 
That makes her white 

About the nose. 

Enter Girl 

girl 

I dreamed that I was wandering in a park — 

I did not know the name — and all was dark; 

And lots of funny little goblins came 

And carried me, as surely as my name 

Is — is — what is my name ? Why, now that 's queer ! 



THE PRIZE OE LIFE 257 

They carried me away and left me here 

And — where is here? Green grass and yellow sand 

And a big tree? I do not understand. 

Where 's nurse? where 's mother? Both are far away, 

And no one here to stop me when I play, 

And no one here to play with! Oh, dear me! 

What are those birdies perching on the tree? 

Why, all their songs are made of human words, 

Like people in the opera! Funny birds! 

QUESEL 

For shame, a great big girl like you! 
I don't know what you 're coming to. 
Try to remember. Fie, for shame! 
She does not even know her name! 

GIRL 

You talk like nurse. 

CURUCUI 

She hath a lovely face! 

GIRL 

Can you please tell me why I 'm in this place? 

QUESEL 

O witless one, 

You take your stand 
In the rising sun 

Of Fairyland! 

TROGAN 

Pretty little girl, look down and see 
The fountain of this charmed tree! 



258 THE) ISLES OF GOLD 

Like the sound of rain and thunder 
How the water wells from under! 
How it bubbles and bubbles in haste, 
Clear to the eye and good to the taste! 
Drink of it, drink of it! Then your joy 
Will be to love a little boy! 

girl 
I think you're jollying. 

QUESEL 

Thunder comes with rain, 
And love for any one will cause you pain. 
Night follows noon ; you get not what you gave. 
Mine are the words that measured be and grave. 

TROGAN 

You measure them with many a peck 
Like crow's caw, caw ! or duck's queck, queck ! 
But mine are musical and many, 
I speak a hundred for a penny. 

QUESEL 

Vain babbler! Mine are chosen few, 
And worth a thousand spoke by you. 
My thoughts are slow; my brain is old; 
My words are worth their weight in gold. 

TROGAN 

Then weigh them ere the gold of morning pales. 

QimsEL 

I would not weigh them on your scales ! 
I '11 teach the little girl to know 



THE PRIZE OP UPP, 259 

The poignant sunset and the glow, 
When mortal woes and lives are done 
And the immortal life begun. 

TROGAN 

Better to wait until she 's dead, 
And not a living sleepy-head. 
Now 't is time to tell her here 
How to live with merry cheer; 
But merry cheer, she knows it all 
And so we tell her nothing at all. 
Happy, happy, in the light of day, 
Leave her alone and let her play! 

GIRL 

And here 's another thing so queer to see; 

A little cloud has nestled on the tree 

Like snow on Christmas pines, and now doth go 

Away upon the breeze like melted snow; 

And so, departing, leaves behind it now 

A little boy asleep upon the bough; 

And oh, the brown and red upon his cheek! 

Wake up, you little boy! He will not speak. 

Perhaps in this far island, human words 

Are spoken not by people but by birds. 

BOY 

Where am I? All that fog is blown away. 
Where did I come from? Is it night or day? 
For when I left 't was all electric light, 
The clock struck nine, it was a cloudy night; 
And here 's the sun! I don't see how I came. 
Hello, you little girl! What is your name? 



260 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

GIRL 

I don't remember. 

BOY 

Well, you are a silly! 
My name is — Sam? No! What? 

GIRL 

It looks like Willie. 

BOY 

Sam, Ben, John, Henry — Henry must be right, 
Or Charlie — no, it can't be Charlie Knight. 

girl 
Who 's silly now? 

BOY 

It can't be Charlie Day; 
Or Smith, or Jones. 

girl 
You wont find out that way: 

BOY 

Anyway, I know I 'm I. 
Where do you live? 

girl 
Don't know. 

BOY 

No more don't I; 
'T was in the city — where I cannot think ; 



I tried it. 



TH3 PRIZE OF LIFE 26l 

I '11 tell you presently; — I want a drink. 
Where 's water? 

girl 
Ask the funny little bird. 

BOY 

You little girl, you really are absurd! 

TROGAN 

Oh, the clear and bubbling spring, 
Bubbling up like anything! 
Here it splash and hear it well 
Like a beautiful wedding bell, 
Under you and under me 
And underneath the enchanted tree! 
Climb you down and then you '11 see. 

BOY 

I see it now and I am climbing down. 

GIRL 

You are a naughty boy to scowl and frown. 

BOY 

I tore my stocking and I barked ny knee. 
Look out, I'm coming! 

GIRL 

Don't you jump on me! 
How will you get the water? 

BOY 

In my hand. 



262 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

GIRL 

I hope it's clean! 

BOY 

I '11 rub it in the sand; 
And then I '11 wash it in the clear cascade. 
You take a drink and don't you be afraid 
Of any dirt. 

girl 

You dearest little boy, 
I '11 be your little sweetheart, O my joy! 

BOY 

You ought to be ashamed for talking so, 
Five years at most! 

GIRL 

Let the sweet water flow 
Between the smiling lips. Take but one sip, 
And don't you put your lip upon my lip, 
For — 

BOY 

Why, you sweet and lovely little girl. 
I kiss you — and — and my head is in a whirl 
And — 

TROGAN 

They are lovers playing at love's game! 

GIRL 

Say, can you tell me now what is your name? 



THE PRIZE OR LIFE 263 

BOY 

Until our names fly hither on the air, 
I 'm going to call you little Goldenhair. 
Your hair of gold, your eyes of violet blue; 
Why, when you come beside I feel with you 
The sun doth shine in skies more brightly bold, 
And all the air is filled with quivering gold ! 

GIRL 

And you, — the rounded cheek is brown and red; 
And the brown hair thick curling on your head; 
And when you kiss, your closing eyes in joy 
Shine brown! You are my little Brownie boy! 
See that old bird ! He looks just like my popper — 
Oh, stop it, you! He thinks we are improper! 

BOY 

I '11 take another right within his sight 
To show him that it 's proper and all right. 
I never knew before why girls were girls. 
They seemed like dolls, all silliness and curls 
And fibs and giggles. 

girl 
What a thing to say 
To me! And yet you speak it in a way 
That makes me love you more. 

BOY 

It 's different now, 
You and those other girls — and anyhow 
I see them how they laugh and why they might 
At cows and serpents get into a fright; 
What the girls do no longer may surprise; 
For all they are, I read it in your eyes. 



264 THE ISLES OF GOLD 



GIRL 

Then if you know them, you '11 be leaving me 
For other little girls that you may see. 

BOY 

I love you only and my love you know. 

The others, let them come or let them go, 

And play at tennis or at basketball! 

But you I love. You 're different from them all. 

And some are jolly girls, and some are clever, 

But you I love forever and forever! 

Sealed with a kiss and there's a promise made 

On lips and eyes! 

girl 

Oh, Brownie! I'm afraid 
When you return into the light of day 
You will forget your promise and you '11 say, 
When you are eating porridge and thick cream: 
"L,ast night I had a very lovely dream." 
And when you go to supper and to sleep, 
And heavenly dreams around your pillow creep, 
Ready to carry you afar from there, 
There '11 be no room for little Goldenhair. 

BOY 

I love you always and I love you true. 
I '11 never love another girl than you. 
Over the sea how the bright sunbeams play! 
But you and all are fading far away. 

TROGAN 

The Dawn doth triumph over the world 
And all his banners are unfurled. 



THE PRIZE OF WFE 265 



Go back, you little girls and boys 
To the real world and all its joys! 



CURUCUI 



Over the world afar they rove 
But still they must remember Love, 
Whose dreaming of immortal birth, 
Makes poor and pale the joys of earth. 



ACT II 

A Spring Morning 

Trogan (sings) 

Hear me sing, hear me sing! 

Here my melodies how they ring 

For meeting in the Maytime air 

Of Brownie and his Goldenhair! 

They part in the world where love but seems 

And are hither come to the land of dreams. 

Oh, what a treat where now they meet 

To dream and dream and find it sweet! 

O elfin band 

Of Fairyland, 
The boy and the girl come nigh! 

And here I see 

The curucui 
And the quesel flying high. 

He flies on high 

All over the sky 
Like one who knows of fate 

From the fiery well 

In the void of Hell 
To the glory of Heaven's gate. 

Enter Quesel and Curucui flying from opposite 
directions 

QUESEL 

I am the quesel gray and blue. 
Whatever I say, it all comes true. 



THE PRIZE OF UFE 267 

I tell you now and I tell you here 
Something is going to happen queer. 

TROGAN 

The boy and the girl are borne once more 
Over the ocean's shining floor; 

And the spirits who bring them here 
Will never wet the tip of the toe, 
As over the rolling waves they go 
Like the hours that fly and the winds that blow 

In the fullness of the year. 

CHORUS OF SPIRITS 

Fly and fly and gently bear 

Brownie and his Goldenhair! 

Lovely girl with hair of gold, 

Here is Dreamland to behold! 

Manly boy with hair of brown, 

Gently, gently set you down! 

Here to dream a moment's space 

In our island resting place 

That love and joy shall conquer pain 

And hearts' desire be born again! 

Here a moment you shall meet 

To make the severed lives complete 

And dream and dream and find it sweet. 

QUESEi, 

In the world below 
They dwell apart. 

CURUCUI 

But here they go 
With heart on heart. 



268 THE ISLES OP GOLD 

QUESEL 

They burn in the fire 
Of parting's pain. 

CURUCUI 

In a dream's desire 
They meet again. 

TROGAN 

"Alas, alas!" the quesel sings; 
But the curucui is happy alway 
And so his melody rings and rings 
To wake the joys of a holier day; 
And for the perfect of this joy, 
Awake, awake, O girl and boy! 

girl 

Brownie! What's Brownie? Why will that sweet 

name 
Perturb with grief and send the maiden shame 
Over my cheek in fearful roseate joy? 
For here he lies asleep, my Brownie boy, 
Asleep amid the mayflowers soft and low. 

BOY 

My little sweetheart of the long ago! 

I dream — I wake ! And by the soul of me, 

What is the vision I most gladly see? 

The tree and the strange birds and the spring air 

And here I clasp my little Goldenhair! 

Oh, better than the world and joys that seem 

Is even this, the shadow of Love's dream! 

In glory of our youth again to meet 

And so our love is crowned! 



THE PRIZE OF UFE 269 

GIRL 

O sweet, sweet, sweet S 

BOY 

Down in the world our lives are far apart; 
But here as always, heart to beating heart! 

GIRL 

Why, Brownie, what a great, strong man you 've grown! 
And what a bicept muscle, all your own! 
And what a head and what a strong, brave chin! 
I know that love and valor dwell within. 
And that great brow that overhangs the eye, 
What thoughts betide you? Brownie, I could cry 
For love and joy, all fearful what I see, 
So much the wiser you are grown to be. 

BOY 

There is no learning that can come between 
'T is only for the glory of my queen. 
And — you how you have grown ! 

girl 

In the bright sun 
Let us sit down and tell what we have done. 
Brownie, you stop! You always were so rash! 
The birds are looking! 

BOY 

Don't you talk that trash! 
Here in the place where all deeds are confessed, 
We side by side. My head upon your breast! 



270 THE ISLES OP GOLD 

GIRL 

Well, I awoke those fifteen years ago, 

After I met you and I loved you so; 

And thought to see you with my earthly eyes 

But suns did set and other suns arise 

In pining for my Brownie. 

BOY 

And I too; 
But both got well. It was the deed to do. 
The maiden health that mantles in your cheek, — 

girl 

I knew I had my Brownie still to seek; 

And to be ready, any time he came. 

And so I played at every outdoor game, 

And in my studies now and yet again 

I read of lovers and their joy and pain; 

And still I felt the absence of my boy 

Was greater pain and meeting greater joy. 

Oh, Brownie! I 've been brave and will be brave 

Even if I never see you till the grave ! 

BOY 

My Goldenhair! Love never is Time's fool! 

And you have played your games and gone to school 

Even as I, a schoolboy, where I played 

At football, and a little muscle made, 

And came to college, fresh from boardingschool, 

A great, strong, lubberly, conceited fool. 

GIRL 

Why, Brownie, don't you talk that way! Eor shame! 
I wont have any one call you that name. 



THE PRIZE OF LIFE 27 1 

BOY 

I was one. 

GIRL 

Stop it! 

BOY 

Well, if a young fool 
Gets kissed for being one at boarding-school, 
Then what 's the use of trying to be wise? 

girl 
And did not other girls have violet eyes? 











BOY 




Why, 


sure 


they 


did. 


GIRL 

And lovely golden 

BOY 


hair? 


Why, 


sure 


they 


did. 


GIRL 










Well! 





BOY 

What do you think I care 
For all the pretty ways and all the sham 
Of sentiment and charm? Why not one damn! 

GIRL 
O Brownie, you have said a naughty swear ! 



272 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

BOY 

You had a naughty thought, you Goldenhair! 
Another kiss will make us good I know. 

girl 

But really truly, Brownie, and no show, 
You say that never in your whole life long 
When you had mingled with the giddy throng 
And all the girls went down upon their knees 
To you, a football hero, at their teas, 
At senior promenades and coaching tours — 
We know that more than common charm is yours 
And in the world I know such men as you 
Will always find a thousand things to do. 
In all that whirl of work and gaiety 
How often, Brownie, did you think of me? 

BOY 

Why every day that dawned within the week! 
I thought of you when I ground up my Greek; 
I thought of you when pain would make me yield 
Over the ball upon the football field; 
And gripped the tighter when I thought of you; 
And made the single touchdown, driving through! 

girl 
Where do you play? 

BOY 

Back of the line, my pet. 

girl 
What college? 



THE PRIZE OF UFE 273 

BOY 



Oh, the name I still forget 
With every other place and every name 



vv 1 Li-i cvcij <_» unci. pi<xv_c a 

Except my Goldenhair! 



GIRL 

And I the same! 

Brownie! Brownie! What a dreadful thing 
To love and know another love would bring 
Fullfilment, with the lover at your side 

You may not find, still seeking far and wide 
At twilight's glimmer and at morning's gleam! 
Oh, grief to love when love is but a dream! 

BOY 

Poor little lady! Drive away the tears! 
We may meet still. We both have years on years 
And all the world to travel! Slow or fast, 
We cannot keep apart; we '11 join at last! 

girl 

Why, Brownie, don't you see? the place, the name, 

The city where we live may be the same 

In the same street, upon the self-same square? 

BOY 

Oh, if I ever saw you, Goldenhair, 

1 'd know you! Naught would keep me from your 

smiles, 
Poverty, sickness or a thousand miles! 
O love, our cities of forgotten name 
Are not the same. 



274 TH E ISLES OF GOL,D 

GIRL 

I fear they are the same 
Try to remember once. 

BOY 

Oh, how I 've tried ! 
Even as you have striven and have cried 
Upon your pillow, thinking so of me! 

girl 
I know, I know! 

BOY 

And yet our love shall be 
Right in the end; and be it here or there 
I know I '11 find my little Goldenhair; 
And so in thinking more and more of you, 
I worked in college and the law school too, 
I 'm going to meet the world, and make it seem 
The nobler unto all men for my dream! 
I 'm going to fight injustice to the poor; 
I 'm going to turn the rich man from his door 
Who piles the unjust dollars. All things frail 
From that injustice I will make prevail. 
If by my deeds, old age and ardent youth 
Are happier in freedom and in truth, 
And wayworn love may find a happier day, 
I know that unto you I '11 clear the way. 

GIRL 

And I — I will be worthy of my fate; 

To the world's grief my life I '11 dedicate 

Amid the rolling smoke of battle-fields 

And booming guns where still the coward yields, 



THE PRIZE OF LIFE 275 

And where the ranks of heroes make their bed, 
The pale, set faces of unnumbered dead; 
I give my life to lighten war's grim curse; 
Unto the wounded I will be a nurse 
Until my charities o'erflow the sum 
Of my desert and we together come ! 

Brownie, is it ended all so soon? 
See the bright sun! 

BOY 

It is the hour of noon. 
The sunshine blinds us both and melody 
Floods from the air into the soul of me 
And this green island paradise is gone 
Into a greater ecstasy! 

GIRL 

At one 
Our loves, though blind and failing! Brownie, come! 
Let us together seek our earthly home. 
The blur, the darkness! lean you down, dear heart! 
And kiss me and once more! 

BOY 

'T is time to part. 
Come sleep forevermore and grief amain, 
After the sunbeams falls the bitter rain! 

1 cannot find my loved one anywhere. 
Farewell! farewell! 

GIRL 

Remember Goldenhair! 

QUESEL 
Oh, down in the world 



276 THE isles of gold 

They both must go 
In a tragedy whirled 

Where the storm winds blow; 
For the brain is weak 

And the heart is blind. 
They seek and they seek 

And they never find. 
They must not wait, 

The dawn comes still 
And I sing of fate. 

CURUCUI 

And I, free will. 



ACT III 

A Summer Afternoon 
trogan (sings) 

Oh, for the sunbeams over the sea 

In the beautiful month of June ! 
And the warblers carol on every tree 

In the golden afternoon. 
The old bird sings, "tra-la-la-la-la!" 

The young bird carols, "pe-wee! pe-wee!" 
For the world is far and the night is far 

And the heavens are clear and the loves are free. 

Over the ocean as the wild winds blow 

Merrily eddying on every air, 
To and fro and above and below 

Hither and thither far away 

The spirits hover and fly; 
They hover and fly and they soar on high 
And their wings flash back the light of the sky 

For they herald the loves of an earlier day 

And the boy and the girl are there! 

They are coming near; 

They '11 soon be here 
The joy of their love to take ! 

In the realms of sleep 

Where the ocean is deep, 
Awake, awake, awake ! 

QUESEL 

Oh, the woman's years 
Have passed her by 



278 THE ISLES OE GOLD 

And the man appears 

With a sober eye; 
For the hopes are dead, 

And the lives are lone, 
And beauty is fled, 

And youth is flown. 

TROGAN 

The quesel's words are solemn and sad; 
I fear the quesel, he must feel bad, 
The quesel's words are thorns to prick; 
I hope the quesel, he wont be sick. 

QUESEL 

I tell the past, and I foretell 
The future, and I feel quite well. 

TROGAN 

See the sleeping girl and boy, 
How their faces light in joy 
The harvest of their love to make ! 
Awake, awake, they are both awake! 

BOY 

I know that face, though times and faces change. 

GIRL 

What is this place, so lovely and so strange? 

And all the grass is watered with my tears 

And green it groweth still, through barren years! 

And the bright birds loud singing in their joy 

And O my Brownie! There 's my Brownie boy! 

Why, Brownie, don't you know me? How you stare! 



THE PRIZE OF LIFE 279 



BOY 



I know you are my little Goldenhair — 
Before mine eyes the shadows come and go. 

girl 

There came a look that I did never know, 

A downward glance. We both have older grown. 

Why do you shudder? 

BOY 

I 've grown old alone. 

girl 

See now the selfsame Brownie as of yore, 
Only a man who was a boy before. 
There 's nothing that mine eyes may see in you 
That is not manly, beautiful and true, 
And splendid as the west wind on the day. 
Why do you look upon me in that way? 

BOY 

Because all words be idle as I ween 

To hide from love the thoughts we do not mean. 

girl 

Why, Brownie, do you think that I would tell 
A — 

BOY 

Goldenhair, I know your spirit well; 
Down in the world without a spot or stain, 
Like budding snowdrop in the bleak March rain, 
All this I know. 



280 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

GIRL, 

You do not answer me. 

BOY 

All this I know and also I would see — 

GIRL 

Brownie, you ' ve learned to talk against the time ; 
And when the brazen bells at morning chime 
And all the deep, hoarse throated whistles blow, 
In the gray mist both you and I must go, 
Forever parted. On this fairy coast 
For one glad moment let us greet Love's ghost. 
Let us not tarry while the hours go by 
Over the subtle meanings of a — 

BOY 

Lie! ' 
Must lies still follow in the lands above, 
Still, still to sunder me from my true love? 
In this far isle where love- joy only seems 
Must lies come also to the land of dreams? 
Oh, then the pangs of actual life for me 
Where lies but shadow unreality! 

GIRL 

And separation's real. 

BOY 

Alas, my love 
It is not meant to struggle here above. 
My dearest you are you and I am I, 
So never mind the shadow of a lie. 
In the blest isle of fairyland I ween 



the prize op liee 281 

Your battle stained knight and you my queen, — 
Why the quick shadow flitting on your face? 

GIRL 

For chivalry 't is not the time or place 
Nor am I stainless; so, the shadows come; 
And all my heart is growing cold and numb. 

Brownie, how I 've waited and I 've prayed, 
And many times I failed and was afraid 

The time I met you, for my punishment, 

1 could not tell of years that were well spent; 
And now — 

BOY 

Poor girl ! 

GIRL 

Not poor. Why don't you know 
The lovers' vows we made so long ago, 
What time the serried hoards of tyrant Wrong 
Were still to conquer by the pure and strong; 
And Virtue was a pilgrim on the way 
To light the path of truth as bright as day; 
And we went forth to conquer and to save 
With love, against the ravage of the grave? 
Do you remember? 

BOY 

Why, 't is even yet 
Fresh graven on my soul ne'er to forget. 

GIRL 

I dreamed that every victory I won 
Would bring me nearer at the setting sun 
To you in realization of my love; 



282 THE ISLES OP GOLD 

And so I entered and I haply strove; 

And when the first white ambulance went by 

Laden with wounded men, I lived a lie. 

For unto the far region of that land 

They carried bad supplies all underhand; 

The purse, they said, of government was large 

And all contractors made a double charge. 

And down among us chosen men were sent 

To make a "safe" report for government. 

So in the tent of hospital supply 

All the false vouchers I would certify; 

For if, protesting, I had quit my place 

For one who did not deem it a disgrace, 

She, overlooking drugs and clothes and fopd, 

Would do much harm, where I a little good 

Might do; and so the crates all came and went 

Under the canvas of the sweltering tent 

Where the gaunt typhus held his horrid reign, 

And the men shuddered at the cries of pain, 

And men lay dying in delirium, 

Hearing the din of battle and the drum 

And boom of cannon at their stricken beds. 

Wild were their eyes, and restless were their heads, 

And lips all black with thirst and white with foam, 

Still calling, calling on the far off home, 

For wife or mother or the girl they left 

Less than a wife or mother, but bereft 

Of love, even as arbutus in the snow, 

Never a wife's or mother's joy to know, 

Only the far off rumor of his deeds 

And sorrows of a maid and widow's weeds. 

Outside the tent 't was all glad holiday, 

Loud played the band, flaunted the banners gay 

Under the tropic skies of burning blue, 

To greet the coming of that retinue. 

And nearer, nearer still the pageant came. 



THE PRIZE OF UFE 283 

Inside the tent the nurses called my name. 
"Come out! come out!' ' I heard the voices cry, 
"The whitewashing committee passes by." 
And there in fevered hands I bowed my head 
And brooded o'er the dying and the dead. 
O Brownie! Brownie! had you been beside 
To tear away the canvas that would hide 
The shame and destitution on the way, 
And show the dying men to outraged day — 
But I alone, Brownie, I did not dare. 

BOY 

Alas, alas! O my lost Goldenhair! 

girl 

Dear heart, don't cry so loud, in such a tone ! 
Say, do you blame me? I was all alone! 

BOY 

Blame you! (aside) If I were weak enough to say 
The truth that was, 't would only take away 
Her last illusion! (aloud) What can mortals do 
To right the world? 

GIRL, 

I read you through and through; 
And plain as noonday unto eyes that see, 
There 's one thing more your heart would hide from me. 

BOY 

Were I to tell, 't would one more sorrow prove. 

GIRL, 

You owe the truth to duty and to love. 



284 THE ISIvES OP GOLD 

BOY 

Over my desk, I labored day by day 

Mid the law's dust that grew more thick and gray; 

And life grew dim and young desire burned low 

Where use and wont constrained me still to go; 

And I had failed to teach the world my lore, 

And I with error was encrusted o'er; 

The lines below the eyes, the lips clenched tight, 

Told of the long duration of the fight; 

But sometimes was the very soul of me 

Thrilled in a moment with a victory 

Afar; and all the clouds of my disgrace 

Were parted by the vision of your face, 

As when the dawn in floods of happier light 

Makes cliff and headland gleam upon the night. 

And then I knew all trickery and deceit 

Must fail before the fulgence of love's heat 

And though a million men may palter and prate, 

That love is always love and hate is hate ; 

And while great suns give gladness to the skies, 

The truth is always truth and lies are lies ! 

GIRL, 

There Brownie speaks once more. 

BOY 

I made a plan 
My friends and I, and each a chosen man, 
Amid the tangled wiles of knave and fool, 
Out of their hands to wrest the national rule, 
Give victory to freedom, and the crown 
To love and truth, and cast the impious down. 
We waited on the time and we rose high 
In party counsel, my good friends and I ; 
But while our plans grew ripe, in lands afar 



THE PRIZE OF LIFE 285 

There burst an indignation of red war; 

And poisonous rumors did our land invade 

How thieving knaves our armies had betrayed 

To typhus and the ravings of disease; 

Which proven, would alone our foemen please, 

Drown our ambitions in a nation's tears, 

And all the well wove plans of many years 

For national salvation were laid low. 

In alien lands of war, 't was fated so, 

I was commissioner. There came the test. 

Outside the tent I, I — 



GIRL, 

Tell me the rest! 

BOY 

My name was borne on eddies of the air 
In cheer on cheer. 

girl 
O God! I heard it there! 

BOY 

I heard men's groans ; I knew that if I saw 

The men inside, 't would rub upon the raw, 

And all the glory of my nobler dreams 

To aid mankind, would vanish with the schemes 

And toil of others. If I closed an eye 

To present evil, if I passed it by, 

If I restrained my heart, counted the cost, 

If for the future I the present lost, 

'T was the one time I faltered with a lie. 

I did not enter. 



286 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

GIRL 

Oh, 'twere well to die! 
Brownie, Brownie! we must leave this place! 
We may not look each other in the face! 

BOY 

The shadows once again! the mortal fret! 
Stay by me dear! Why can I not forget? 

girl 

Though young desire doth seek the world to mend, 
The world is still a victor in the end. 

QUESEL 

The truant years are fled away. 
Call them again, they will not stay. 
Pleasure is gone and now comes pain; 
For the past will ne'er come back again. 
And sure as day is followed by night 
Two wrongs will never make one right; 
And sure as the night is dark and long, 
Too many things have happened wrong; 
And sure as bad is followed by worse 
Men must endure their fortune's curse; 
And sure as pain is followed by grief, 
From some of those ills, there 's no relief. 



ACT IV 

An Autumn Evening. 

Enter QuESEL and Curucui flying from opposite 
directions. 

CURUCUI 

O quesel, quickly fly to me 

And the fairy isle beyond the sea! 

QUESEt 

'T is an autumnal eve 

And all good birds the dreams of summer leave ; 
Faded the flower and fallen is the leaf, 
Like fraility of love. We in our grief 
Around Love's fountain mourn the idle toys 
Of life and love and all unrealized joys. 
The skies, all gray and ashen overhead, 
Bemoan the little trogan for he 's dead! 

trogan (sings) 

Hear me, hear me flutter and cry; 
Hear me, hear me never say die! 
Morn and eve I 'm still on the wing; 
Hear me, hear me, flutter and sing! 
Poor old quesel, happier be 
Like the happy old curucui; 
For none shall grieve in the world above 
That life is life and love is love; 
And do not grieve in a voice of tears 
Because their love outbraves the years; 



288 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

But all glad birds will carol in joy 

At the coming of the girl and boy, 

To the isles of gold in the setting sun 

Where the souls of the blest with love are at one. 

BOY 

The well known shcre and fullness of the sea, 
And all the setting sun's immensity, \ 

And royal purple asters everywhere, 
And balm of everlasting on the air, 
Glamour of dying sunbeams on the sea, 
And whispers of wild breezes in the tree, 
And the strange birds in jargon there above, 
Bespeak the fullness of remembered love. 
And though I'm old and bent and cannot see 
But dimly, still I feel the life in me; 
And there comes back the rhapsody of joy 
That moves the ardent memories of a boy, 
The breadth of moving waters and the light 
And the young tenderness upon the night, 
And all is bright and fervent now once more 
Like her mine eyes have seen so long before. 
And all the elder failures and the tears, 
And the long heaviness of latter years, 
And all heartbreaking ills are rolled away 
To greet the glory of an earlier day 
When love and honor burned in living flame 
And life was only one great gorgeous game! 

girl 

I totter down the bluff o'er stocks and stones 
'T is very painful for my poor old bones; 
And — here is all the world has left of me; 
And feeble, Brownie, and I can't well see, 
But still I know there 's love upon the air 
And all past hopes ; for Brownie boy is there. 



THE PRIZE OF LIFE 289 



BOY 

My Goldenhair, the world is wholly gone ; 
And you and I and love are all alone; 
And these gray hairs. 

girl 

Mine are all grizzled through. 

BOY 

But lo, the love that now comes back to you! 

girl 
We have turned the corner, we are grown so old. 

BOY 

Before us now the scroll of life unrolled 
Reveals the past in glamour of glad truth, 
With all the joy and sting of untried youth. 
Back, O my love, into our lives we go 
Where failures are not any more to show; 
And mortal error and the fawning lies 
Are like bad dreams that turned out otherwise; 
And we the banner of our life unfurl 
Again as man and woman! 

GIRL 

Boy and girl! 

BOY 

Again as children! 

GIRL 

All our souls are clean! 



2QO THE ISLES OF GOLD 

BOY 

And all desires are as they might have been, 
And everything accomplished that we willed! 

girl 
And all our aspirations are fulfilled! 

BOY 

And the dark world is now a brighter place 
That thou hast lived thy life! 

GIRL 

And by thy grace, 
The winds are wilder and the skies more free ; 
And Love and Truth all tremulous in glee, 
In shining raiment with glad voices sing 
Unending song; and the red roses spring, 
And the pure lilies, ne'er to pass away, 
Give an eternal joy from day to day 
Unto mankind, and Heaven smiles above 
Upon the adoration of our love! 
Wild songs of victory upon the dawn 
And all fresh odors over field and lawn, 
And how the mighty mountains give the sound 
Unto the fury of the sea profound! 
And where the ragged chimneys lifted high 
Smear with black smoke the pale blue of the sky, 
And gallant men and women do and dare 
'Mid teeming miles of sordor and despair, 
There 's a great joy surpasses any spring 
Or joy of wild fowl on their northern wing 
To greet the life and tenderness come forth 
Even from the frozen bosom of the north; 
And men uplift their voices in great joy 
For thou hast saved them, O my Brownie boy! 



THE PRIZE OP UPE 291 



BOY 



My Goldenhair, there 's one more kiss to take! 
How could I save mankind even for thy sake? 
The light grows pale, my dear, and gathering clouds 
Cover the setting sun with purple shrouds. 
Behind the solemn veil one beckoneth 
And we must answer to the call of Death. 

GIRL 
Is it the end, O Brownie? 

BOY 

Not the end. 
Though dissolution on our spirit spend 
The pangs of Hell, there 's something yet above 
Even his power. 

girl 

The knowledge of our love! 
Kiss me once more ! O mountains, vales and streams, 
I parting now even in this land of dreams, 
Even at the moment when my love grows fair, 
Have loved and am content! 

BOY 

My Goldenhair, 
There is an aureole around your head 
To light the pallid regions of the dead. 
And in the pangs of death we know love's joy. 
Farewell, my love! 

GIRL 

Farewell, my Brownie boy! 
I/Ove shall dispel the terrors of the grave. 



292 THE ISLES OF GOLD 

The healing sleep comes o'er us like a wave 
To wash the wind-blown sand upon the shore; 
And we have had our love forevermore; 
And pain is past, and this alone is true 
That you and I are one; for I am you! 

QUESEL 

Oh, the world is revealed 

To a heart that dies; 
And a soul is healed 

Of earth born lies; 
And dreams and desires 

Are all as one; 
For life expires, 

And love is done! 

CURUCUI 

Love cometh again 

When the warm winds blow 
And he smiteth amain 

The pride of the snow; 
And the flowers unfurl, 

And the tide runs high. 

QUESEL 

But the boy and the girl 

Must pass and die. 
Like the melted snow 

On the April tide 
The old loves go. 

CURUCUI 

But Love shall abide. 



THE PRIZE OF UPS 293 

QUESEX 

Dust unto dust 

They wholly seem 
Who put their trust 

In an empty dream. 

CURUCUI 

When all is done 

Of trouble and strife 
Such dreams have won 

The prize of life. 

QUESEL 

So at debate 

We are sitting still; 
For I sing of fate. 

CURUCUI 

And I, free will. 

VOICE ON THE WIND 

Trouble no more your souls for them; 
For the west wind breathes their requiem. 

CHORUS OF WINDS 

Breathe it on the tidal gale 

At the leaping of the spring. 
Tell the robins of the tale, 

Tell the warblers, how they sing, 
They shall never waken there 
Brownie and his Goldenhair. 

They have lived and loved apart, 
All unheeded they must weep! 



294 TH] 3 ISIvES OF GOLD 

Now together heart with heart, 

Let them sleep, oh, let them sleep! 
Lovers here and lovers there, 
Brownie and his Goldenhair. 

Blessings on you, girl and boy, 
Ever sleeping side by side! 

Nevermore the days annoy, 
Nevermore the hours divide 

Now at last a happy pair, 

Brownie and his Goldenhair. 



THE END 



THE GARDEN OF 
THE HEART 



"Amore e cor gentil sono una cosa." 

La Vita Nuova 



'Cosi trapassa al trapassar d'un giorno 
Delia vita taortale il fiore e verde; 
Ne, perche faccia indietro april ritorno, 
Si rinfiori mai, ne si rinverde." 

Tasso 



TO MY MUSE 

(a confession of faith) 

Return, my muse, return again! 
For thee too long, I've sighed in vain. 
Return, return! 

Thy crocean curls by zephyr blown, 
Thy rose tipped hand within mine own, 
Return, return! 

Kindle once more the fire divine! 
Once more my brows with myrtle twine! 
Return, return! 

Whisper the words that lead me nigh 
The unseen realms of poesie! 
Return, return! 

By thee, I know the toil and strife 
And consecration of Man's life. 
Return, return! 

By thee, I know these worlds that seem 
Victorious, are but dream on dream. 
Return, return! 

Full well I know by charm of thee, 
Mankind at last grows wise and free. 
Return, return! 



298 THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 

By thee inspired, I fain would make 
This world the nobler for thy sake. 
Return, return! 

Give eyes unto my heart and mind, 
For the salvation of mankind! 
Return, return! 

O come once more, my muse to me, 
Fair daughter of eternity! 
Return, return! 



THE HILLS OF BETHLEHEM 

(A CHRISTMAS CAROIv) 

'T is night, when all things silent be 
Over the hills of Bethlehem; 

The sheep are asleep on a grassy lea 
And the star, it shineth on all of them. 

Dark shadows fall from glistening rocks 
Over the hills of Bethlehem. 

The shepherds in silence tend their flocks 
And the star, it shineth on all of them. 

Behold it moves in the realms of air 
Over the hills of Bethlehem; 

Unto a manger drawing them there, 
The star that shineth on all of them. 

A light below and a light above 
Over the hills of Bethlehem. 

Where a baby croons to a mother's love 
And the star, it shineth on all of them. 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 299 

Mary mother and all in prayer 

Among the hills of Bethlehem 
Worship the Christ-child smiling there, — 

And the star, it shineth on all of them. 

Full well they know, who vigil keep 

Among the hills of Bethlehem, 
The shepherd hath come to fold his sheep 

And the star, it shineth on all of them. 

And the tears of men and women shall cease, 

For over the hills of Bethlehem 
Comes peace on earth and perfect peace — 

And the star, it shineth on all of them. 



TO 



It was my fate uncaring friends among, 
Lonely along Life's pathway still to fare; 

And when the glory and the shame I sung, 
You were the first to care. 



Good lives are gardens, glad and free, 
Where early violets, side by side 

With damask rose and fleur-de-lis, 
Bloom beyond the harvest- tide ; 

Side by side, all sheltered warm 

From the black frost and ravening storm. 

But ah! these earthly posies yearn 
For dews that fall from loftier skies, 

Where seraph wings, without return, 
Waft o'er the streams of Paradise 

Eternal blooms, whose odors meet 

Before the Father's mercy-seat. 



300 The garden of the heart 

The world was one grand rhythm all to-day 
And all the joys of earth, they flocked in haste; 

I could not catch them, so they flew away; 

Full many a noble thought was doomed to waste; 

But others still abide and they shall be 

The charmed brood of immortality. 

NOISETTE 

Were you and I together 

And both with love at one, 
No storm our lives would sever; 
But both with love together 
In warm or wintry weather 

Would bloom beneath God's sun, 
A double rose forever 

When Earth's desires are done. 



A CHILD'S GARDEN 

Olga plucked the lavish flowers, 
Black eyed Susan's golden pride. 

In the passing of the hours 

All their petals drooped and died. 

Still there grew, from earth apart, 
Other flowers immortal made 

In the garden of her heart, 
Memories that shall not fade. 

In her heart they grow and blow, 
Perfect for a little while. 

Immortality they know 

In the sunshine of God's smile. 



THE GARDEN OP THE HEART 301 

O children of the morning light 

When summer fills the sky, 
Fair morning glories, opening bright, 

Only to close and die! 

Ye tell of hopes unfolded soon 

Upon the dawn of day 
In shadow of life's afternoon 

Only to pass away. 



THE HONEYMOON 

A smile for your smile, 
And a tear for your tears! 
'T is sweet to beguile 
A smile for your smile. 
They are not for long while 
In the vista of years, — 
A smile for your smile, 
And a tear for your tears. 



A BOWL OF ROSES 

A great, substantial, portly china bowl 
With curious, Chinese figures all in blue, 
Fat mandarins, and trees that never grew 
In Nature's soil. The body 't was; the soul 
Bloomed forth and spread a langorous perfume round. 
It was a bunch of roses, fresh and fair, 
With petals pink as coral. Gazing there 
I stood in dreamy fancies all spellbound, 
As, with the sweetest of all soundless sound, 
They breathed their praises to the morning air. 



302 THE GARDEN OP THE HEART 



To E. W. W. 

Friend who wanders with me far 
In the lands that never are, 
All the charmed ways along 
I beguile thee with a song. 

On the far and charmed way 
Out of ken of night and day, 
I the mammoth people find, 
Better, wiser than mankind. 
All the many faults of Man, 
All his little plot and plan, 
All his hope and joy and pride 
Are a folly to deride. 
All in all they pigmy seem 
To the race whereof I dream. 

Friend who wanders with me far 
In the lands that never are, 
All the charmed ways along 
I beguile thee with a song. 
Let the song beguile thee still, 
Thine and mine for good or ill. 



BUTTERFLIES 

How they flutter and flaunt and fling! 

Everywhere 

In the air, 
Butterflies, butterflies on the wing! 



THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 303 

One is white as a bridal veil; 

One is red as a rose in May; 
Golden is one, and pearly pale 

As the afterglow of an autumn day. 
One hath color of heart's desire; 

One is hued like the burning pain 
Of failure or loss or youth's bright fire 

That flickereth once, but never again. 
One hath wings like a dying flame; 

One like lilies that fade and close; 
One with drifted leaves the same 

Or the purple shadows on mountain snows. 

But all of them flutter lightly by; 
Bright and gay 
On a summer's day; 
Gone at eve ere the robin sings; 
Gone ere the swallow hath furled his wings; 
Gone in uncertain journeyings 
Or ever the sunsets die. 

Eddying ever 
Like flakes on a river 
Or the bubbles on a stream; 
Each fitful, fickle butterfly 
Flutters and flaunts and passes by; 
Flutters and flaunts to fail and die 
Like the fading of a dream. 



DRIFTING 

Drifting in our frail canoe 
On the dusky, silent stream 
Dearest, see! the sunset gleam 

Fires love's torch for me and you. 



304 THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 

Coral clouds and pearly sky 
Flaming in the farthest west 
Softly whisper, "Peace and rest 

Peace and rest that never die." 

Let us shun the sable shore, 
Frowning at us, slipping by; 
Let 's be happy, you and I, 

Drifting, drifting evermore. 



THE CLOUD PALACE 

The floating cloud was bright within 
With purple and roseate glow; 

And far beyond this mortal din 
Where no man's prayer could go, 

Uprose the palace of the djin 
Embuttressed white as snow. 

The sun touched dome and minaret 
And turned their gold to flame; 

The hills whereon the fabric set 
Were dark with earth's dark shame 

Cast up o'er crag and rivulet, 
Where never a pilgrim came. 

The proudest conqueror would not dare 
To brave that charmed sway. 

Not earth's embattled armies there 
Could scale those rocks of gray. 

But one light breath of summer air, 
And the power all fades away. 



THE GARDEN OP THE HEART 305 

THE SHOWER 

Oh, the bounty of the rain 
Sweeping over hill and plain! 
Like a joy, dispelling care, 
How it livens up the air! 
See the larkspur's tangled blue 
Where the bees go buzzing through, 
How from drooping of its head 
Now it stands up straight instead! 
See the nodding lilies blow 
All their petals to and fro; 
And their brothers of the sword 
Stand like soldiers at the word! 
Though their leaves are beaten down 
How they brave the heavens' frown! 
The skies are wild and murky black, 
Sudden cleft with lightning's crack; 
Like the trolls at game of bowls 
How the crashing thunder rolls! 
How the crashing rain beats down 
To wake the green from dusty brown! 
From the parched brown of things 
Lo, the verdure that upsprings! 
How it makes the buds to burst 
In mad revelry of thirst! 
Oh, they need it every whit, 
Need the lash and sting of it! 
Under the wrath of the thunder roll 
Still to bloom a perfect soul; 
Like a double joy of earth 
So to gain a second birth; 
So to prosper and expand 
Over all the sunlit land, 
When the sun doth rise again 



306 THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 

More benign for summer rain, 
Through the azure of the skies 
Touching life that never dies. 



VIOLETS IN DREAMLAND 

We walked in the dreams of a violet mead 
And the grass and the flowers were very fair; 

But little of all did I take heed 

For a sunbeam shone in thy silken hair. 

I was a knight and thou my queen; 

Like an elvish queen, thy form was fair; 
And there came a clarion call, I ween, 

In tourney and joust to do and dare. 

But the lovelight laughed in thine eyes of gray, 
And thy parted lips were lovely fair, 

And the tourney sounded far away 
For thee and me and the love we bare. 

For never a joy was like to this, 

Thou in my arms both fain and fair, 

A maiden's vow and a lover's kiss — 
And of all this world I had no care! 

Queen of the vision, my own heart's queen, 

Thou like a violet fragrant fair, 
When the skies are blue and the fields are green 

'T is time to list to a lover's prayer! 

List to a story always new, 

Thou like a violet lovely fair; 
And tell me if ever dreams come true 

For thee and me in the violets there. 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 307 

FULFILLMENT 

Thou, love, and I went o'er a mighty mountain ; 

Green was the grass whereon our feet would fare. 
Light from the sky was over stream and fountain; 

Songs of wild birds a-tremble in the air. 
Silent we trod before the dawning's portal; 

Eyes all undazed by any brighter beam. 
Surely our sight was over any mortal. 

O, for the joy and fullness of a dream! 

Thou, thou and I forever in my dreaming, 

Soul unto soul forever fain and sweet, 
Under the sunbeams radiantly streaming, 

Gathered the violets growing at our feet. 
O tufted violet in the springtime growing! 

Thou in thy bloom more radiantly fair! 
I, in the rapture of the gods' bestowing, 

Made me a garland for my true love's hair. 

Lo, in the blare and pageantry of morning, 

Brighter than hope that beacons from afar 
Even thy brow's white innocence adorning, 

Shone every blossom like the morning star! 
Brighter and brighter kindled they, outshining 

All happy suns that light the worlds above, 
Ever the beauty of thy brow entwining 

In exultation of the light of love. 

Prized by my soul, thy love was but a vision 

Granted in vain by evanescent powers. 
Why did I wake to find it a derision 

All in the weariness of actual hours? 
Oh, let me dream where yearnings may be granted ! 

Thou, thou and I forevermore to seem 
Always in light and loveliness enchanted, 

Thou for my dear one and a deathless dream! 



308 THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 

A DOUBLE DIRGE 

In the brown earth together we lie. 

The sprouting grass our grave shall hide. 
What care we for the blue of the sky, 

We together and side by side? 
Side by side forever, my love, 

Side by side forever! 
What care we for the summer's pride, 
Or the bloom of grapes on the autumn-tide, 
Or the silent snow that falls to hide 

Our love, not Time shall sever? 



LALAGE 

O still beloved a hundred days apart! 

I loved you in the laughter of a day; 
And you, when love was stirring at your heart 

You would not say. 

Now, though the memories came crowding back 
Revealing you the better part of me, 

Revealing you my soul upon the rack, 
You would not see. 

And though my love were like the voice of birds 

Or melody of angels in your ear, 
The music and the meaning of the words 

You would not hear. 

And though for your sweet sake I dared a deed 
To ease the burden all the world must bear, 

Whatever I might compass for man's need 
You would not care. 



THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 309 

O still beloved, but careless and unkind! 

May sorrow never lift your soul above 
The maiden fancies of the blissful blind, 

Who know not love. 



AN OLD SONG 

There were two girls of age to marry 
A noble lord of high degree: 

And one not long did maiden tarry 
For gold was hers and land in fee. 

And one was wed to tears and sorrow 
For strangers gave her bed and board. 

Alone she wept both night and morrow, 
For alone she loved the noble lord. 

And one was framed for rank and fashion 
And pride of beauty overblown. 

And one was framed for deeper passion, 
Her doom to love and love alone. 

The bride he loved and cherished blindly 
And little love he gat in turn. 

The maiden loved him all too kindly, 
And lived her life to love and yearn. 



SUNSET 

Fervor of evening! o'er the whispering sea 

Steals the light breeze, and every flower and leaf 

Trembles in yearning of a soul set free 

For love's wild joy and ease of ancient grief. 



3IO THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 

Now is the hour for lovers' charmed way 

With crimson lips and throbbing of the breast; 

Long parted in the toiling of the day, 
Together joined and either heart at rest. 

And what a healing for a soul bereaved, 

The chime of evening bells when day is done, 

The sheep enfolded and the grain upsheaved, 
And God's own glory in the western sun! 



ONE LITTLE NO 

One little no! 't is all absurd, 
Such burning pain for one small word! 
How could he hope to win success, 
Pursuing rainbow happiness? 

He heeded not. The passing hour, 
Bitter in fruit, was bright in flower. 
Did he not know that Time has wings? 
Men are such very foolish things. 

He said I 've made the world a hell 
With my inconstancy. Ah, well! 
The past is past? One cannot be 
Constant through all eternity. 

His grief and rage and dark despair 

Are very hard for him to bear. 

One little no! 'T is all absurd. 

Do men's hearts break for one small word? 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 31 1 



HEARD BY THE WIND 

Wandering o'er the whispering lea 
Or the misty mountain side, 

Wind of the world, have pity for me; 
Wandering wild and wide. 

Wandering always, day by day, 

Without abiding place, 
Like my sweetheart never to stay 

For a well remembered face! 

Wind of the world, by dale and down 
Wandering wide and wild, 

Hast thou ne'er in sleepiest town 
Heard of a heart beguiled? 

Waft thy joys on the morning air; 

Waft them wild and wide; 
Only in silence, I must bear 

Grief for a love that died. 



LESBIA 

Live we and love! the twilight hours go by! 
Live we and love, nor ask the reason why; 
My arms a tremble round thee, love, and thine 
Around my neck and I may call thee mine! 

Live we and love! the starlit hours go by! 
Live we and love! the dawn is in the sky! 
Give me one kiss and let ambition go, 
The wide world waken and the west wind blow! 



312 THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 

Live we and love, and let the hours go by! 
Live we and love, for man was born to die, 
And far more sweet thy love-look is to me 
Than all men's promise of eternity! 



TO ONE WHO WAS WISE IN HIS OWN 
BELIEF 

Am I a fool, that proudly I deny, 

There is no change in our frail human state ; 

For hope is dead, and love must pass and die, 
And wrong endures, and therefore God is great? 

Did hope not bud afresh at springtime's breath, 
Were man's mistakes each an eternal rule, 

Were love once blasted by the pangs of death, 
Your God, not I, were still the greater fool. 



FROM HAFIZ 

'T was roses, roses in my bower, 

Maiden roses, fair to see! 
Bursting bud and fragrant flower 
I plucked them in the twilight hour, 

My own heart's blood, for thee! 

But while I bore them on the way 
The winds of heaven blew wild; 

The winds that breathe at close of day 
When the heart is best beguiled, 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 313 

Blew them and blew them away from me; 
Bud and flower, 't was all the same, 
Out of my bosom a purple flame 

On the waves of the western sea! 

"O love, my roses all are blown! 

I come to thee, empty of them all ! 
Bursting bud and flower in bloom 
Over the sea like seabirds flown! 
Where, O where is the rose in bloom 

Not passed beyond recall?" 
"Beloved, at breast and garment hem 
Behold thy roses, all of them, 
The soul of the rose, the rose perfume 

At last for thee and me!" 



TO A FRIEND 

If ever our friendship fails 

Remember this; 
That never a dawning pales 

At morning's kiss, 
That never a sunset sky 

Is fair to see, 
But the sad eyed hours go by 

Remembering thee. 

If ever our friendship fails 

And time is a lie, 
And the sad eyed hour bewails 

That love must die, 
And all for the loves that died 

Thou wear the rue. 
Remember at Christmas-tide 

I am always true. 



314 THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 



TU NE QUAESIERIS 

Believe that fickle love shall last forever 
When steadfast are the waters of the main, 

When backward flow the currents of the river 
And all this Indian summer comes again, 

When kisses will endure like marble stone, 

And you and I at heart are truly one. 

Pluck the red rose that blossoms while it may, 
Beauty unfolding neath a noonday sky; 

And when the fervid petals fade away, 
Sooner or later know that all must die; 

And summer, still departing from her bowers, 

Leaves fragrant memories that once were flowers. 

So let us love in flush of bounteous weather 
And pluck the fleeting pleasure at the full 

And down the blooming hedge-rows fare together 
While both are young and all is beautiful; 

Nor trouble for the future and the tears 

That fall upon the passage of dead years. 

And when the parting comes as partings must, 
With sighs and tears, dear heart, we will not 
strive 

Nor seek to re-create, from senseless dust, 
The soul of love that is no more alive ; 

Only remember when the song is sung, 

How sweet it was to love when all was young. 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 315 



SCATTER THE ROSE 

Scatter the rose on the wind ! 

Rend the petals away! 

Wide as the glare of the day, 
Fair as the hours are fleet! 

Let love last while it may 

Broken and rended and torn 

With its petals strown on the morn 
And its perfume still more sweet, 
Far more poignant-sweet, 
Than a rose that blooms in the smile of May, 
A virgin bud on a virgin spray, 
To unclose on the quiet of garden bowers, when 
the hours are fain to greet! 

Scatter the rose on the wind! 

Rend asunder the spray! 

Let love last while it may 
And leave regret behind! 
What care we for the tears, 

Or the lives that fade on the day, 
Or the tumult of wasted years, 
Or the promise that will not bind 

Hearts that are weak and wild 

As the will of a wailing child? 

Hearts that are wild and weak, 

Leave them to pine and peak. 

There are other roses to seek, 
More beautiful still to find! 



316 THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 



A BALLADE OF SPRING 

Heigh ho! the blood begins to rage! 
Heigh ho! the bursting of the spring! 
The time for lusty marriage, 
The time for love and love-liking ! 
Heigh ho! the bushes burgeoning 
For a pair of lovers on the lea! 
Merrily, merrily how they sing 
Together neath the apple tree! 

'Tis: "Lady, vows may not assuage; 
The bird of love is on the wing! " 
'T is: "Sir, 't were better in his cage; 
And evil fall that issuing! 
The goodly daisy flowers I fling 
To teach you better modesty; 
Lest both be shamed a-dallying 
Together neath the apple tree!" 

'T is: "Lady, lo the golden age 
That you and I be mimicking! 
Away with silly vassalage 
Of taper and veil and wedding ring!" 
'T is: "Sir, a mime must be a thing 
Semblant, and never verity. 
Not otherwise, our tarrying 
Together neath the apple tree." 

ENVOY 

Prince of the seasons, little king 
With hooded eyne that cannot see, 
Trow ye the fall came with the spring 
Together neath the apple tree? 



the; garden of the heart 317 



A BALLADE OF WINTER 

When the snowfall doth efface 
Blackened vines about the door, 
When Jack Frost doth silvery trace 
With his runes the lattice o'er, 
When the garden paths are hoar 
For Love's feet in wandering, 
Lo, thy heart is lone and sore! 
How for thee may sweet birds sing? 

When thou farest to the place, 
Snow girt on a windy moor, 
Where thy true love hid her face 
On thy breast in days of yore, 
Mid the circled pines that soar 
Crust and rime enshadowing, 
In the moonlight pale and frore, 
How for thee may sweet birds sing? 

Fool! that would not flee apace 
Ere the loves had fled before! 
Now are fled the summer days 
With the broken faith she swore! 
Nay, upon a summer shore 
If thou hear sweet jargoning, 
Will she not thy heart restore, 
How for thee may sweet birds sing? 

ENVOY 

Heart, thou 'rt frozen to the core 
Ne'er to wake at any spring. 
Past is past forevermore. 
How for thee may sweet birds sing? 



318 THE GARDEN OP THE HEART 



A BALLADE OF FOLLY 

He wears the scarlet cockscomb on his head, 
And in his hand he carries Cupid's bow; 
And many a lordly divan doth he tread, 
And many a lady's presence doth he know; 
For everywhere his painted minions go 
Like motes in air and bubbles on the stream, 
And withered leaves when autumn breezes blow. 
It is a world where Folly reigns supreme! 

What matters all the past ? The lives we led 
Let tarnished reputation take in tow! 
Let 's all be merry, now the wine is red, 
And flaunting flushed, the faces in a row! 
Over the breast the wanton tresses flow 
By neck and shoulder, and the dark eyes gleam, 
And loud the strident laugh to hide the woe! 
It is a world where Folly reigns supreme. 

Here faith is gone and hope is long since fled, 
And shame and fame alike for friend and foe! 
'T is here the last low spark of love lies dead 
That burned more brightly in the long ago. 
And health and youth and honor pass also 
The splendor and the glory and the dream, 
And all is lost in one great overthrow — 
It is a world where Folly reigns supreme. 

ENVOY 

Princess of heart and soul, to thee I owe 

New love, new faith and hopes that brightlier beam ! 

Make pure my sullied life and hold it so, 

Far from the world where Folly reigns supreme ! 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 319 



A BALLADE OF OMNIPOTENCE 

If I were Lord of life and light, 

I would not make the prickly pear, 

The gila monster and his bite, 

The poison of miasmic air, 

The fever pest, the cattle scare, 

The blighted corn, the season's dearth, — 

All should be happy, sound and fair, 

Were I the Lord of heaven and earth. 

I would not have enthroned Might 
Propped by the hypocrite, his prayer; 
The "living wage," the labor fight, 
The sweat shop on the foul, dark stair ; — 
But man and woman here and there 
Around the world in all its girth 
Plenty and peace alike would share, 
Were I the Lord of heaven and earth. 

If I were Father and God of right 

My children's children I would spare. 

Woman and man their troth would plight, 

A blessing, not a curse to bear. 

I would not have the pandar's snare, 

Nor child misformed at the birth, 

Nor no love parting anywhere, 

Were I the Lord of heaven and earth. 

ENVOY 

Prince of the spheres, thy creatures' care 
For thee makes game and godlike mirth. 
Better by far we all should fare 
Were I the Lord of heaven and earth. 



320 THE GARDEN OP THE HEART 

THE SILENT SONG 

When, mid the stars, adorning 

Grim night's eternity, 
Or on the wings of morning, 

Thou feel thy soul set free; 
When, with the truth thou hearest 

Thine inmost heart is stirred; 
Unto thine own heart's dearest 

Oh, utter not that word! 

The future that thou seest 

Would dazzle her bright eyes; 
The past from whence thou fleest 

Would never make her wise; 
The dreaming of the ages, 

The sifting of the sand, 
The tempest when it rages, 

She would not understand. 

The songs thy soul inspire 

Are not for her to share; 
For women most desire 

Some trifle, light as air. 
Oh! leave what gods may tell thee 

Although thy heart be wrung, 
The word that doth compel thee, 

Unuttered on the tongue. 

But when thy soul is flaming 

Walk forth into the night; 
And there without thy naming, 

The darkness shall, be light; 
Though mountains may be rended 

Asunder stone from stone, 
The song of life unended 

Is thine to hear alone. 



THE GARDEN OP THE HEART 32 I 

A SONG OF THE Q. B. C. 

Ere we toddle up to town, 

Homeward bound, Quinsigamond, 
Fill the stein and drink her down, 

Bumpers round, Quinsigamond! 
Sound her praises on the air! 

As our fathers found her, 
Still we find her wondrous fair 

When we gather round her. 

Here 's to thee, old Q. B. C. 

Dear to each beholder! 
Bumpers round and drink her down! 

May she ne'er grow older! 

Lapse of ages cannot tame 

All your joys, Quinsigamond, 
Old and young we 're all the same, 

All your boys, Quinsigamond! 
Comrades, here, 't is merry, merry cheer, 

Any kind of weather! 
And when the foam is on the beer, 

We '11 be boys together. 

Here 's to thee, old Q. B. C. 

Dear to each beholder! 
Bumpers round and drink her down! 

May she ne'er grow older. 

When the sunset lingers o'er 

Spruce and pine, Quinsigamond, 
All along your silent shore 

Memories twine, Quinsigamond. 
Welcome, welcome, to our strand, 

Thine at twilight mellows! 



322 THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 

Here you '11 find us, heart and hand, 
Still the same good fellows. 

Here 's to thee, old Q. B. C. 

Dear to each beholder! 
Bumpers round and drink her down 

May she ne'er grow older! 



BILLY DARE 

Trot along, my Billy Dare! 

Show the uplands how you go! 
Red and gold the maples bear; 

All the oaks, a crimson glow! 

Trot! the elm trees, towering tall 
Shower leaves upon our track! 

Trot! the wind o'er rise and fall 
Drives the pliant birches back! 

How it plays in Billy's mane, 
Roisters o'er the pasture wide, 

Blows the fern to seed again 
All along the forest side! 

How it tingles on your cheek, 
Stirs the currents of the blood, 

Rouses up the heart to seek 

Everything that 's pure and good! 

Trot my Billy! leave behind 
All that man has made for worse ! 

Trot! the bracing autumn wind 
Blows away the primal curse! 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 323 

All men's grief is turned to song 

In this keen October air. 
So we bravely trot along, 

Trot along, my Billy Dare. 



Each from his lofty peak we two give call 

One to another; and in the vale below 
Sometimes the echoes of our meaning fall 

Where crowded men at barter come and go. 
For me the storied east; for you the west 

Boundless in prairie, rock, and flooded light 
With merriment of children manifest; 

For me, stars and the night! 

You tell me of strange wisdom, man hath won 

But yesterday or hath not won at all; 
But far beyond the bounty of your sun, 

O'er ruined temple and broken city wall, 
Rises from out the immemorial east 

Dust upon dust, fraught with old crimes, old 
wars, 
And alien creeds and woes that have not ceased. 

For me, black night and stars! 



SALUTATORY 

O my fellow members, how I rub it into you! 
How I rub it into you and rub it all over you ! 
I, no respecter of any personality, 
Who is not kind and wise and honorable! 
Brown be the hair or bald on the cranium, 
All are alike in the temple of my criticism, 
All alike at my oracle of criticism, 



324 THE GARDEN OE THE HEART 

Seek it and find what other people think of them! 

Youth may be reverent, old age venerable; 

Any young man may yet be irreverent; 

Any old man may yet be un venerable. 

Old men and young men, how I rub it into you ! 

I, no respecter of any personality, 

Drudge in a bank or a worker in a factory, 

Doctor and lawyer and any professional, 

Doctor and lawyer, how I rub it into you ! 

If you are free from a word of criticism, 

Then you may know you are very unimportant, 

Infinitesimal in the community, 

Only a flea in a swarm of parasites, 

Only a mite in the mold of the camembert. 

If you are pierced all over with my criticism, 

If you are full of my quills as a porcupine, 

Then you may know you 're a person of importance, 

Then you may know you 're a man in the community. 

Only a finger nail to crush the parasite, 

But for the man, you need the battle axe! 

I, no respecter of any personality 

Who is not kind and wise and honorable, 

What unto me is the proud individual 

Lost in the manifold pride of humanity? 

What unto me is the pride of humanity, 

Lost in the boundless riddle of the infinite? 

Vainly the loves and the pride of humanity 

Tempt the unutterable silence of deity! 

I, no respecter of any personality 

Who is not kind and wise and honorable, 

What care I for a person of importance, 

Any important person in particular? 

I, who contemplate universality 

What unto me is a man in the community? 

Only a minnow in a pool of the rivulet, 

Only a leaf in the forest of the universe! 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 325 

I, who contemplate universality, 
What unto me is a person of importance? 
Only foam on the billows of the infinite, 
Only a drop in the waters of oblivion. 



THE VEILED SPIRIT 

When Dante sang of joys eterne, 
He tuned the lute for lovers' lays. 

Eor Beatrice, his heart did yearn 

And all the spheres rang back her praise ; 

The words were sweet upon his tongue, 

But love indeed he never sung. 

O ye, the Sistine's vault beneath 
Who view the dreams of Angelo, 

Their youth untouched by change or death, 
For him remained true joy to know; 

Immortal glory he hath gained; 

But aspiration ne'er attained. 

Truth, veiled by vast eternity, 

Is there no measure to express 
What heart can feel but eyes not see, 

The soul of all her loveliness? 
We know she dwells beyond the earth; 
But not the secret of her birth. 

A truce to words. What tongue can tell 
Her power, prevailing everywhere? 

We find her not in heaven or hell, 
At morning song or evening prayer. 

Yet, darling, for one raptured while, 

In thy dear eyes, I saw her smile. 



326 THE garden oe the heart 

NOBODY KNOWS. 

Nobody knows the meaning of evil ; 

Nobody knows the nature of sin; 
Nobody knows the wiles of the devil, 

How to get out or how to get in. 
Whether a deed will aid you or hurt you, 

East and west on the wild wind blows; 
Be it a vice or be it a virtue, 

Ask in vain, for nobody knows. 

Nobody knows the call of the ocean; 

Nobody knows the bourne of time; 
Nobody knows the birth of motion; 

Nobody knows the glory of rhyme. 
Search the womb of the rocks below you, 

Climb to the cold of the mountain snows, 
Ask the midday sun to show you, 

Ask in vain, for nobody knows. 

Nobody knows the world's creator, 

Nobody knows the primal cause, 
Fate or chance for an abritrator, 

Heart's desire or nature's laws. 
Nobody knows the loves that love us 

Or the soul of a white, white rose; 
Would you be as the gods above us, 

Ask in vain, for nobody knows. 



THE OCEAN OF REST 

O peace to thy sleep ! let no mortal disturb 
Thy cares upon earth that distract and perturb ! 
Winged angels uplift thee and bear thee away 
From the lives that all fade in the glare of the day. 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 327 

They bear thee away to the beach and the boat 
All calm at its moorings the waters afloat. 
They cast off the painter and spread the bright sail 
That knows but the breath of a favoring gale. 

And over and over the watery plain 

Mid tremulous silence thou glidest amain; 

O'er dark, gleaming waters thou glidest along 

To a sound half unheard, like the ghost of sweet song. 

Far circling birds from their courses descend; 
And, hovering o'er thee, in harmony blend. 
Then over the waters they flutter and glide 
And gleam in the dusk of that infinite tide. 

t 

Thou glidest and glidest mid music away 
Till o'er the horizon, in place of the day, 
Uprises a glory, undreampt by the sun 
When fate had the world in its courses begun; 

And louder and louder the harmony sounds; 
Reechoes again and more sweetly resounds; 
And brighter and brighter the radiance grows 
Yet soft as the breath of an opening rose. 

Then all in the midst of that radiance and light 
Uprises an island, unknown of the night, 
O'erarched with wide elms, and with many a glade 
Of violets and ivy that never shall fade. 

Stop here, t 'is the end! t' is the lost thou hast found! 
Tread lightly! immortals have trodden this ground! 
All ended thy sorrow and portion of death 
Where men speak of love with a catch in the breath. 



328 THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 

From the hours that fail and the hopes that betray, 
From the shadows of earth is thy soul fled away. 
Oh sleep thou, my dear one ! drive care from thy breast, 
In the far isle of dreams mid the ocean of rest ! 



FLOWERS OF LETHE 

On the banks of that still river 
Where birth and death are one, 

Pale flowrets droop forever 
Beneath no smiling sun. 

The whispering winds blow o'er them, 

That in wet places blew 
Where none have bloomed before them, 

White poppy or green rue. 

Unhappy phantoms hover 

Along the stream of rest; 
When life and love are over, 

Forgetfulness is best. 

But none may cull the flowers, 
Whose hearts have e'er forgot; 

Nor wander in the bowers, 
Whom love remembers not. 

Only pale phantoms flutter, 

That neither live nor die; 
Dumb life that may not utter 

Dead yearnings long gone by. 

Sweet words that once were spoken 
Float down upon the wave; 

Old vows forever broken, 
That may not find a grave. 



THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 329 

Here life may still remember, 

And love outlive regret; 
But April and December 

Alike the shades forget. 



Only the whispering river 
Mourns to the listening breeze 

Where leaves of aspen quiver 
With heartfelt memories. 



THE WANDERER 

O for the western sky 
When the fretful day is done, 
And the lords of the hills and the lords of the plain and 
the lords of the air look on! 
The white mist rises high 
From the river and the plain, 
And the skies are red as a foughten field with a thou- 
sand thousand slain. 



O love of women and gold! 
Yours is a mortal breath; 
Ye trouble the years of youth and hope and meet in 
a common death! 
More wise, the nobly bold 
Who dwell afar from these; 
For the hills are high and the plains are wide and the 
skies are eternities! 



330 THE GARDEN OF THE HEART 



ULTIMATE 

Far, far away 

Beyond the day 
And the splendor of skies aflame, 

Oh, come ye blest 

To sleep and rest 
And the peace that hath no name ! 

And all whose hours 

On earth like flowers 
Are crushed by the heel of Time, 

Shall find more high 

Than the angels fly 
The garden of life sublime; 

And all whose days 

Are a tangled maze 
Of folly and strife and ill, 

Shall find beyond, 

Though dreams are fond, 
The truth can save men still; 

And all who are vexed 

And sore perplext 
Where life is a broken light, 

Shall find afar 

From adverse star 
The glory beyond the night. 



SONNETS 



THE ALTAR OF POESIE 

How far from thee I've wandered, brake and burn 
Can tell; and ocean wind on lonely moor 
That from far cities bears the burden o'er 
Of all the million hearts that ache and yearn; 
Of all the million brains that may not learn 
Joy's truth, beyond the sordor of life's lore. 
These left behind, how sweet it is once more 
Unto the dreams of boyhood to return ! 
Temple of Poesie, my boyhood's shrine 
How sweet to enter, in my heart a prayer; 
To hear within thy chambers, line by line, 
The cadence of thy praises on the air; 
To see thee face to face! O goddess mine, 
Thy presence glorifies the world's despair! 



PROSPECT 

I will not grieve because it faileth me 
Through lack of fortune or through lack of power 
To glitter on the summit of an hour 
Like foam upon a ripple of the sea- 
Let victors wear the laurel. I am free 
To fructify a talent yet in flower, 
To smile at all the fools that carp or cower 
At lack of worldly opportunity. 
I will not grieve, if all I do or say 
Through years of patient labor be in vain. 
I still am free a profitable day 
To dwell with men of mightier heart and brain, 
To loiter at the knees of Thackeray 
Or listen to the wisdom of Montaigne. 



334 SONNETS 



To B. W. 

The crossroads! See! We journey on apart. 

You 've taught me there 's a brighter, nobler end 

In life, than trafficking to get and spend; 

For faith and hope inspire human art. 

Let 's linger at this tavern ere we part. 

Your health, my plodding, helpful teacher-friend ! 

Your oddities, a thousand discords, blend 

In human harmony of soul and heart. 

So jest and plod and serve the college bell. 

Your quips have told a mighty truth to me ; 

As coral polyps, all unheeded, dwell 

In everlasting depths, build patiently, 

Cycle by cycle, each his insect cell; 

And lo, an island rises from the sea ! 



THE DAWN 

The sun uprose and rent the mist away 

From off the rosy bosom of the morn, 

Who wept with tears of dew her mantle torn 

And drew about her thigh the shreds of gray. 

Over the shining hills they took their way 

Down to a valley by a river brink. 

He gave her there the wine of life to drink; 

And there I saw the nuptials of the day. 

With sweet division, o'er my tuned soul 

There thrilled the warbling of an oriole: 

"Cull thou thy flowers ere summer's portal closes. 

Lo, the wine, brimming full thy cup of bliss ! 

Lo, thy beloved, pouting for a kiss ! 

Love thou amid the lilies and the roses!" 



sonnets 335 



REGINA 



My heart is thine O love ! thine all in all ! 

Bare to thine eyes, its crimson mystery! 

So wilt thou pause and hearken unto me, 

And then thine answer give imperial, 

The sound thereof, to me, thy bounden thrall, 

Though harsh in anger and disdain, shall be 

Sweeter than paradisal harmony 

In Eden's bowers before the sin and fall. 

Whate'er thy will, who rulest o'er my days, 

Thine be the glory, who in all thy ways 

Art queenly, thou the pure and thou the strong! 

And if for me the pain, yet from thy hand, 

I, weeping, bless the wound, who understand 

That thou, my lady queen, canst do no wrong! 



WAYFARERS 

If I with thee each crust might share and share, 
Blithely I'd beg my bread from door to door, 
Or sleep on haymow or on threshing floor, 
Thy head upon my shoulder, and thy hair 
Against my cheek. Nor ever should I care 
For salutation from the passers by. 
With thee beside me in thy constancy, 
The shame and beggary were debonnaire. 
Disowned and flouted and defamed by all, 
Over our lot we'd waste no time in moan; 
Nor rate him equal, who, in rise and fall, 
Captain of Europe on his eagle throne 
Proclaimed from cannons' lips imperial, 
Or on Helena, still must dwell alone! 



336 SONNETS 



VIOLETS 

These violets fade ; for every stalk doth fall 

And every blossom, drooping of its head, 

Looseth its fragrance ere its days are sped 

And the sweet life be gone beyond recall. 

But there's a bower that's immemorial, 

Never by sun or dew or raindrop fed 

Where no flower blooms to perish mid the dead; 

And thou, the peerless violet of them all. 

So let the others fade and many springs 

Pass by with passing by of all frail things 

And the winged hopes that are most quick to fly. 

But far from that fair bower, Time shall forget 

To sever from its life one violet 

Whose fragrance and bright bloom shall never die! 



THE AWAKENING 

Poets whose words outlast the lofty line 
Of Charlemagne and Caesar! Once I pored 
Over your measured truths and fondly ignored 
The only thing that makes the truth divine. 
Friends of my moods when solitude was mine, 
Those raptures that the generations move, 
Pale in the splendor of another love 
Whose brow nor diadem crowns nor laurels twine. 
No more may goodly lines on fair white page 
With imaged lives and loves the hours assuage, 
Nor touch with borrowed feelings, grave or gay. 
Prom others' dreams, I turn to dreams of thee, 
O love, my love! whose face I ever see 
So instant near — though far and far away ! 



SONNETS 337 



IN ABSENCE 

In place of pouring forth a song for me 

Into thy listening ear, this Christmas-tide, 

My thoughts, that fly from far where I abide, 

Are tossed by winter storms upon the sea. 

So is my spirit vexed continually, 

That on the bitter gale of ,f ate doth ride, 

Hither and thither blown from side to side, 

Trailing a broken pinion, far from thee! 

Hither and thither blown with wind and rain, 

Fugitive through the mist, where naught is plain 

Save scud and towering cloud and sorrow and fear. 

But on that barren sea without a shore 

Where whirlwinds rave above the waters' roar, 

Glimmers the dawning of a glad New Year. 



THE DAYS OF CATULLUS 

' ' Live we and love, my Lesbia ! In the deep 

The suns will set only to rise again. 

But we, when our brief light is out, remain 

In one perpetual night, there still to sleep." 

So loved they in old Rome, arjd we who weep 

Blind love and broken faith and passion's pain, 

May we not catch the lilt of their refrain 

Ye lordly loves who timeless vigil keep ? . 

Hold we our faith unbroken, even so 

As they at Rome two thousand years ago 

Nor care thereafter what may hap to be; 

For suns will set and other suns arise, 

But ere the love light fadeth from thine eyes, 

Our love will make its own eternity. 



338 SONNETS 



THE FALL OF EROS 

Is it the shame of love that makes men sad, 
In deep dejection clothing every vow? 
Can we not pluck our pleasure even now 
From all the ancient splendor that he had? 
Is this the god whose arrows drove men mad, 
Before whose laughter even Zeus did bow, 
Whose promise did the elder days endow 
With pride of innocence, in candor clad? 
Why do men weep if love be love indeed? 
It is the joy of universal need; 
It is the freedom of a holier day! 
O man! why wilt thou take thy shame on trust, 
Converting to the fire of baser lust 
The spark that is immortal in the clay? 



AT OLYMPIA 

O craven is the breed of modern men ! 
Impure of heart nor very stout of thew! 
The taloned passions torture and subdue 
Who haply dare to come within their ken! 
O for the promise of the ages, when 
For what men felt they nobler and wiser grew! 
O that Apollo's lyre might wake anew 
And Eros spread his pinions once again ! 
Fled are the gods, far into baffling skies; 
Men toil in vain that life may be more fair. 
But I, belated votary, still surmise 
The stir of mighty wings upon the air, 
The sudden gleam of an immortal's eyes, 
The twining tress of hyacinthine hair. 



sonnets 339 



THE ACCUSATION 

The sunset sky, with royal purple ground, 

Though golden tinged, yet bears a bloody stain. 

Forests and rivers mumble their disdain 

Of toiling man, by doubt encompassed round. 

The terrible Unknown, whose laws resound 

In ocean roaring or in thunder peal, 

What recks He of His creatures' woe or weal? 

Prometheus still by adamant is bound. 

'T is all so empty, cruel and unjust, 

Let folly's flicker light the eternal gloom. 

Why strive for gilded truth that crumbles, dust 

Within our grasp ? If perfumed roses bloom, 

Why trample them because they spring of lust 

And feed on exhalations from the tomb? 



IMMORTALITY 

The world is old, alas, and I am old; 
Older than sun or moon, alas, am I, 
Condemned in other worlds for death to cry 
When these are as a story that is told; 
Condemned to traverse lives as manifold 
As stars that burn the bosom of the sky, 
Viewing my fellow creatures cringe and lie 
And rob and war for laurel and for gold. 
A lonely voice, chiding the morning lark, 
A fear winged firefly, flitting through the dark, 
I ever was and ever am the same. 
Like Tantalus, with lasting thirst, I crave 
Surcease, surcease, that in the restful wave 
Of Lethe I may quench my vital flame! 



34° SONNETS 



STONEHENGE 

Ere England and her empire had begun 

These stones were gray with eld upon this heath; 

And centuries went down to dusty death, 

And chartered liberties were lost and won, 

Since an unstoried race of Albion 

Worshipped their god who dwelled in changeful skies 

And on some dawn, 'mid primal sacrifice, 

Their priestly builders hailed the rising sun. 

The God we know shall change and pass away; 

The Resurrection and the Judgment Day; 

Our uncrowned hopes, our doubt and mockery. 

But these bleak stones upon the windy wold, 

Within their circled mystery, still shall hold 

Their altar to a nameless deity. 



REDIVIVUS 

If from these eyes the vision passed away 

And all were darkness over land and sea, 

And only by the warmth that came to me 

My tear stained face might know the light of day; 

If in that blindness, the bright ocean spray 

Dashed on my cheek; or one most dear to me 

Cried on my breast, yet unto deity, 

Could He my sight restore, I would not pray. 

Lord God of Hosts, created by mankind! 

Thy powers are blown abroad upon the wind; 

Before Thy rood the generations bow; 

But whether on the footsteps of Thy throne 

Or cast in outer darkness and alone, 

The soul of Man is greater still than Thou ! 



SONNETS 341 



HIGH AND LOW 

When I behold the petty heart and brain 
Of those who, mad with trivial desire, 
Scramble for gold like sparrows in the mire 
Who soil their beaks with pecking after grain; 
When I behold the aspiration vain 
Of those whom restlessness and lust inspire 
That burn across the soul like vagrant fire 
Leaving behind a blackened path of pain; 
The more I marvel at the godlike mode 
Whereby, effulgent in a chosen few, 
From mortals born, like other mortals blind, 
The star of wisdom hath serene abode; 
Whence these derive a peaceful power of view 
That mirrors love divine to humankind. 



AD ASTRA 

One truth have sages uttered, poets sung, 
One fragment of an undiscovered whole, 
This I deciphered, faded on the scroll 
Of thought, and written many lies among. 
Great is mankind, though slave to weal and dole,- 
Mankind to whom brute folly erst hath clung, 
Mankind, from whom of old the wisdom sprung, 
That shows to human sight, the eternal soul. 
Therefore to man I turn ; his joy, his care, 
His glory and his shame I, mortal, share; 
More of the truth I, mortal, cannot know, 
Save that on fateful wings he soars afar, 
Leaving the hell, he 's made himself below, 
Up, on, still up, still on, from star to star. 



34 2 SONNETS 

PICTURES IN FLORENCE 

The Medusa of Leonardo 

Vacant thy gaze that turned men's hearts to stone, 

Gorgon of gorgons ! severed lies thy head 

'Mid toads that crawl and batten on the dead, 

Amid thy snakes in gasping terror prone. 

Thy passed agony no mortal moan 

Can voice; and all the evil yet to be 

Through undiscovered aeons abides with thee 

'Mid caves to sun and stars alike unknown. 

Forth from thy parted lips once deadly fair, 

Now pallid with corruption utterly, 

Stealeth a vapor forth upon the air; 

Like to that fame that courts futurity 

With deeds that smite the angels with despair 

And wreaks a living death that cannot die. 

Madonna by Era Lippo Lippi 

She wears upon her head no heavenly crown; 

And all her love, for one small child nearby. 

Her 's not the empyrean but that calm sky 

That watches o'er a little Tuscan town; 

In prayer demure she hath her eyes cast down 

Her hands devoutly joined; but her bright eye 

Veils not the mother's pride in baby nigh, 

Who strokes her shoulder neath the dainty gown. 

Lippi, within thy heart the love divine 

Of Mary and her Son could never shine, 

Beyond the clouds, forever to abide. 

A wife and child thy vision, roguish boys 

Thy cherubim, who still for human joys 

In cowl and cloister yearned unsatisfied. 



SONNETS 343 

TO CHANTICLEER 
(a sonnet trio) 

"There is more day to dawn." 

Warden. 



Bird of the sun, awakener of the morn! 
At thy glad voice the early sunbeams glance! 
Thy music fills the valleys of old France 
And rouses up the world with hope new born. 
But we in other lands, by discord torn, 
How slowly toward the light we make advance! 
Vainly the hours would drag us from our trance, 
Our night of darkness, prejudice and scorn. 
But thy brave clarion thrills in rhythmic life, 
And blends in radiant harmony the strife 
Of all. Behold the hooded night goes by! 
Our eagle greets thee o'er the ocean's roar; 
And Liberty, long dormant on our shore, 
Quickens to life at hearing of that cry. 



II 



Over thy soul, full many a shadow goes ; 
The hawk that hovers like autumnal cloud; 
Less menace than the hateful feathered crowd, 
Huddled in fear at every wind that blows. 
The birds of darkness all alike thy foes, 
Whose fell rapine thy dawns have not allowed; 
The empty merle, the peacock, foppish proud, 
Sworn to betray thee, champion of the rose. 
But more than these, thy soul must rise above 
The blandishment of poor, earth- blinded love; 
Albeit at thy heart, her love did stir. 



344 SONNETS 

With burnished beauty, in thine eyes, she dreamed 
To eclipse the rose of dawn; who fondly deemed 
Betrayal of thy trust was truth to her. 



Ill 



Sing on! sing on! the dawning comes at will! 

The line of poplars turns to lucent gold ! 

Behold the blue convolvulus unfold 

On the old wall, and ivied window sill ! 

The sound of bees comes o'er the neighboring hill; 

Amid the wheat, the poppies, bright and bold, 

Burst scarlet! Joy of life glows manifold; 

And faith in thine own song is victor still ! 

Woe to the land without a faith like thine! 

In pride of power, like strong men flushed with wine, 

Our sons go forth to vanquish tyrant Wrong. 

"Behold he falls!" in unison they sing; 

From sea to sea, the valiant tidings ring 

Of man's advance — but not without thy song. 



GROTESQUE 



THE SPELL OE THE YELLOW BEAST. 

Twister, he was a Chinese lion, 
(Sing fol de rol de doodle de day!) 

With claws of gold and muscles of iron. 
(Sing fol de doodle de day!) 

His body was pink and his mane was blue; 
And his eyes, they shone as black as your shoe. 

Twirler, his brother, was golden green, 
And the tip of his tail was ultramarine. 

They dwelt beyond the crystal sea, 
Where the tulips grow to four feet three. 

An amaranth vine, it veiled their cave 
Hard by the charmed crystalline wave; 

And every evening, they could smell 
The languid meads of asphodel; 

And when the dawn was fair to see, 
They 'd hunt in the hills for the wild boree. 

Now the wild boree is a succulent beast 
Fit for an emperor's wedding feast; 

But the brothers dwelt in concord rare 
And each one had an equal share. 

Their life was like a great, glad game 
Until the trouble upon them came. 



34^ GROTESQUE 

The trouble was hatched by an evil djin 
Who envied the life they revelled in. 

So he took a skin of tiger fur; 
Also a giant canister 

That usually held his strong, black tea. 
(For the djin more large than mortals be. 

For a djin in his body is rather more tall 
Than the midmost tower of the Manchu wall; 

And a djin in his legs is rather more long 
Than the porcelain tower of Ah Too Tong.) 

He took the giant canister 

And wrapped it round with tiger fur; 

And he made a beast in cunning wise, 
A female beast with opal eyes. 

He put the head where the head should be, 
And he sprinkled the tail with strong black tea. 

That the brothers might love her beauty well, 
He crowned her with horns, like a wild gazelle. 

And when she was done, she sprang afar 
And fell from heaven like a shooting star, 

Till she landed on a poppy vine 
By the charmed waters crystalline. 

She stood on the brink of the crystal sea 
While the full moon shone all over the lea. 



THE SPEIX OE THE YELLOW BEAST 349 

The asphodel she wandered through 
Till her fur was moist with morning dew. 

She halted by a bubbling brook; 
From a browned pool a drink she took; 

And her broken reflection no more queer 
Than the original did appear. 

But they love a curious sight right well 
In the land of poppy and asphodel. 

For to all who are not impossibly dull 
The curious is the beautiful. 



Next morn the brothers awoke with glee 
To hunt in the hills for the wild boree. 

They captured one in a very short while 
And carried his bulk for many a mile; 

And very little time they took 

Before they came to the bubbling brook. 

There at the marge with poppies grown 
They stopped and laid their burden down. 

And not very long their prey did last 
When once they broke their morning fast. 

Then Twister licked his chops with pride 
When he thought of what he had inside; 

And Twirler waved a feathery tongue 
And broadly smiled the poppies among. 



350 GROTESQUE 

They quenched their thirst with might and main, 
Till the cavernous throats, they hissed again; A 

And when their morning romp was done, 
They stretched them out in the amber sun. 

So, side by side, like fork and knife, 
They thought of all the joys of life. 

Each golden claw came out of the sheath 
And daintily cleansed the pointed teeth. 

When lo, upon the farther marge, 
They spied the female all at large! 

Then either raised a rigid paw 
Half way up to a gaping jaw. 

They gazed like Adam before his sin; 
And gazed and drank her beauty in. 

Twister his eyes grew brighter yet 
Until they shone like polished jet. 

Quivered the tip of Twirler's tail 
Like aspen leaf or gossamer veil; 

For both drank deep the joy and fire 
Of love that makes the heart's desire. 

Then either gave an admiring roar 
And started out for the other shore. 



When they emerged on the other bank 
They both had grown more long and lank; 



THE SPELL OP THE YELLOW BEAST 35 1 

For the curly hair that made their pride 
Was matted down on either side. 

They shook themselves upon the sod; 
They made a mist for many a rod; 

They did not like their moist condition; 
And they eyed each other with deep suspicion. 

Said Twister; "What are you doing here 
That beautiful female all too near?"' 

"Where else do you think I 'd be, I wonder?" 
Said Twirler in a voice of thunder, 

"Her hue has all the lustre rare 

Of Ling Ho Dynasty lacquer ware!" 

That was the first unkindly word 
That either brother had ever heard. 

The drops stood out on Twister's nose 
Like dew upon the opening rose. 

"Twirler," said he, "My heart's delight, 
I do not want to have a fight; 

" But by the oval peachblow shrine 
That beautiful female, must be mine!" 

Said Twirler: "If you allow her to choose, 
I think you '11 find that she '11 refuse." 

Said Twister: "If you care to look 
At your reflection in the brook, 



352 GROTESQUE 

"You '11 see you 're in no fit condition 
To offer any competition. 

"Moreover, but a little more 

And you '11 be homelier than before; 

" For I '11 claw your face and tear your tail 
And leave you here to weep and wail!" 

Said Twirler: "Long ere that would come, 
You 'd feel like a bad chrysanthemum; 

" But let us talk to one another 

As loving brother and loving brother. 

" Why cannot the female choose between 
The merits of the pink and green? 

" We '11 happily end our sad division, 
Submitting unto her decision." 

Unto the female they approached; 

In ardent tones, their suit they broached; 

For Twister opened his jaws so wide 

You saw the tonsils sway inside, 

And he said: "I hope you '11 be my bride. 

" For your praise is hymned all over the earth 
By the throned aeons at their birth; 

" And your praises shall be hymned soon 
In all the changes of the moon!" 

The yellow beast, she ruffled her fur, 
And vented a melodious purr; 



THE SPELIy OE THE YEIvIvOW BEAST 353 

And thrice she lowered a branched horn 
Like an assenting unicorn. 

Then Twirler sighed most piteously, 
And made a simple and heartfelt plea: 

"There are no words of his or mine 
That may extol your charms divine; 

" I therefore only tell you true 
That madly I 'm in love with you!" 

The female gave a little bow 

And long and loud she cried, " Miaow!" 

And thrice she lowered a branched horn 
Like an assenting unicorn. 

Said Twister: "As usual I am right; 
In me alone she takes delight; 

"For if my observation 's true, 
She purrs at me and miaows at you." 

But Twirler answered: "Every word 
Of your remark is quite absurd. 

"The purr, indeed, may be the measure 
Of gentle and melodious pleasure; 

" But in the long miaow doth sound 
Passion instinctive and profound! 

"And if this be not wholly plain, 
I think you 'd better try again." 



354 GROTESQUE 

"How interesting!" Twister quoth, 

" Do you think she 'd like to have us both?" 

Twirler was terrible to see; 
He roared in outraged chivalry: 

"The imputation put upon her 
Doth her and me a foul dishonor! 

" As sure as her hide is black and yellow, 
You show yourself a vulgar fellow!" 

Said Twister: "Our hearts have been as one, 
But words like yours I '11 brook from none!" 

Said Twirler: "If you like them not, 
You may put them in a ginger pot!" 

Then Twister spread his claws in the air 
And buried them in Twirler's hair. 

When Twirler felt them in his coat 
He tried to get hold of Twister's throat. 

They clawed with many a snort and twitch 
Till you could n't fathom which was which. 

Over they whirled and round and round 
Faster and faster over the ground; 

Like the purple fire whirled they, 

That a mandarin lights on the New Year's Day. 

Under the sky of sapphire blue 
The asphodel and poppies flew, 



THE SPHhh OF THE YELLOW BEAST 355 

Till like a pin wheel when 't is tired, 
The fight died down and then expired. 

Then Twister rose and looked around 
But Twirler lay upon the ground. 

Twister was sore from end to end; 
His left hind leg refused to bend; 

The blood that flowed from many a gash 
Made with his coat a color clash; 

But, worse than all, his lady gave 
No sign unto her warrior brave, 

But stiffened out in every paw 
Like an effigy of woven straw. 

Twister gallantly limped anear 
And put his nose up to her ear; 

But the yellow beast gave never a stir, 
Nor did she miaow nor did she purr. 

Then Twister raised a paw defaced 
To put his arm about her waist, 

Whereat she gave a slight rebound 
With a hollow. and metallic sound; 

Then down upon the ground she fell 
With the clangor of a metal bell. 

Off in a frenzy Twister tore 

The horns that on her brow she wore, 



356 GROTESQUE 

And off he tore the tiger skin 
And found the canister within; 

And within the canister found he 
A little heap of strong, black tea; 

For the djin had rung his triple bell 
And thus removed the magic spell. 

Then Twister heard a voice behind 
Like a troubled ghost upon the wind: 

"Alas! alas! Why doth it folllow 
That love at last is always hollow?" 

Turning his head, he looked upon 
Twirler, all draggled and woe begone; 

For the golden green came off in patches 
Under the stress of his brother's scratches; 

And the tip of his tail of ultramarine, 
The joy of his heart, was not to be seen. 

He gazed on Twister with mournful eyes 
And said: "If either one of us dies, 

" Let him not be borne away in a hearse 
Beneath the ban of a brother's curse!" 

Said Twister: "'T was my only worry; 
For all our anger I 'm truly sorry." 

Said Twirler: "The brute wasn't worth discussion, 
Let alone our ill advised concussion!" 



THE SPEU, OF THE YEU,OW BEAST 357 

Twister answered never a word, 
But patted Twirler's spinal cord. 

So, victimized by phantom charms, 
They fainted in each other's arms. 



Twister and Twirler are getting well 
By the languid meads of asphodel. 

Each day, they feel more bold and brave 
Hard by the charmed crystalline wave. 

At eventide, the poppied shore 
Re-echoes with their leonine snore; 

And when the dawn comes over the lea, 
They bathe within the crystal sea. 

To a coral beach they then repair 
And carefully comb each other's hair. 

Twister hath grown more pink in hue; 
His mane is even a brighter blue; 

Twirler is rather more gold than green, 
And all of his tail is ultramarine; 

And both consider brotherly love 
A random passion quite above. 

But both in agony, loud they bellow 
At certain patterns of black and yellow; 

And both regard with an hate newborn 
A ruminant with a branched horn; 

And both would cross the crystal sea 
To avoid the odor of strong, black tea. 



A MOTHER'S TEST 



He was an infant Chinese lion, 

A baby Dog of Fo. 
He with his mother dwelt afar 

Beyond the Hoang-Ho 
Upon the Mountain of Desire 

Where the pale, pink peonies grow. 

In blossomy garden girded round 

With rocks precipitously, 
His mother taught him what the sun 

And what the moon might be; 
But never told him how, each morn, 

He was more fair to see. 

His ears were red like apple fruit; 

His belly like the gold; 
His frequent losses on backbone 

Were pearly to behold 
Amid the sheen of vernal green, 

As when young leaves unfold. 

His delicate and curly mane 

He tossed like windswept bower; 

He blessed the hour of his birth, 
And blessed the present hour 

As he trotted down the porcelain path, 
In his mouth a peony flower. 



a mother's test 359 

Upon the porcelain as she lay 

His mother roared her joy; 
For he was wholly beautiful 

Who also was her boy; 
But hers was never one sweet word, 

Obedience to destroy. 

"Come here," she purred, "Mine errant child 

And hearken unto me 
For I will tell you what you are 

And what you ought to be. 
IyO, the Feitsui Cliffs that rise 

O'er fell declivity! 

"Hard by the base a dragon dwells 

With pinions of sharp steel; 
When once inside his nephrite lair 

'Twere all in vain to squeal; 
For that bad dragon dearly likes 

Young lions for a meal. 

"Fain would I have a son of mine 

In peril tested true. 
Leap from the rocks and face the foe 

And I will pray for you. 
It does not matter what you dare 

Nor matter what you do." 

Upstarted every several hair 

Upon the Dog of Fo. 
Cried he: "By Brahma's lotus globe, 

Mother, I will not go!" 
"Shame! shame!" she growled, "My timorous cub! 

'T is time indeed to show. 



360 GROTESQUE 

"You are a lion!" She lifted him 

Full firm within her jaw 
To carry him o'er rock and rock. 

He neither heard nor saw, 
But spat in vain and wriggled in vain, 

Burling at every claw. 

An upward rush of mountain air 
Passed him; and he fell down. 

He clawed and clawed in agony 
As a kitten doomed to drown. 

Then all became as emptiness, 
Till slowly from a swown 

He woke anear the nephrite cave. 

A sharp and venomous thorn 
Had torn the cushions on each toe. 

Bleeding and all forlorn 
He raised his baby voice, the day 

To curse, that he was born. 

Out of the fastness of the cave 
In answer came there back 

O'er barricado of white bones 
Like a million geese at clack 

A hiss and a roar; and more and more, 
As angry cannon crack, 

Smoke and red fire, forth issuing, 
Blurred the clear light of day; 

And the baby lion stood at gaze, 
And the blue smoke cleared away. 

Frozen with horror stood he still, 
As a kitten brought to bay. 



A MOTHER'S TEST 361 

Before him rose a monster form 

Too terrible to tell, 
With fold on fold of scaly gold 

Like the bright fires of Hell. 
With iron lidded eyes that glared 

Into the darkness well, 

But blinked upon the sunlight. "Oh! 

The dreadful, dreadful thing!" 
Clamored the baby, "Me! ah me! 

Ready to bite and sting!" 
Again the hiss; again the roar, 

As, like a spiral spring 

The worm lurched out; and the Hon leapt 

For twenty feet in air. 
By racial instinct well he knew 

He had no time to spare. 
Full firm he fell upon four feet 

On the bones piled there, 

Under a ledge with a beetling edge 

As high above the ground, 
As flies at kite a mandarin 

With crystal buttons round. 
Bracing again his hinder feet 

The Hon with a bound 

Sped forth; and in his heart a prayer 

Like a lily gan unfold: 
"Lords of the skies, uphold me now 

Who the bright birds uphold!" 
And Sakka's grace o'er bridged the space 

Or ever the prayer was told. 



362 GROTESQUE 

Upon the ledge with beetling edge 

Grew a dwarf mulberry tree 
Whereat he clutched, whereto he clung 

Over inanity; 
And down below he saw the worm 

Who him on high did see. 

When rich men dine on roast canine 

And the gripes begin to stir, 
Before dull eyes o'er lacquered screen 

Floateth a small, black blurr; 
So saw the worm that lion babe 

And his wings began to whirr. 

His wings gan whirr, his wings gan stir 
Like bees on the green Chi- Li; 

Into the air the spiral bulk 
Moved imperceptibly. 

"Now," cried the baby, "Fear is passed; 
'T is time to leap or die!" 

Now dragon wings be proper things 

Afar from the daylight 
To winnow the foul air in caves 

Of subterranean night; 
But never gawky popinjay 

Hath more uncertain flight. 

But wings be better than four feet 

Even if wings be small 
And the four feet be leonine, 

Shapen to spring and crawl. 
The rocks were sheer; the rocks were steep; 

The steep, sheer cliffs were tall. 



A MOTHER'S TEST 363 

Nearer, nearer came the worm 

Around and yet around 
Flapping upon a steely wing. 

And the mountain did resound, 
And the baby lion sprang and sprang 

Frantic with every bound. 

And lo! upon the startled air 

The worm uprose above 
The spot upon the mountain where 

The lion still did move, 
Ready to swoop with falcon stoop 

Down where the prey might prove 

A dainty morsel; and the lion 

His very soul was cowed; 
And all his little life passed by 

Ivike a white summer cloud; 
All in his eye there passed him by, 

As faces in a crowd, 

The memories fair, the memories vain, 

The memories of the past, 
The mother's voice, the mother's air, 

The kiss that was her last, 
The pale, pink peonies of Nepaul 

And the cliffs and the heavens' blue vast. 

So passed him by his infancy 

That never again might be; 
And still the dragon poised and poised 

Like a falcon steadily. 
Then o'er the brown of the rocks came down 

On the quarry it could not see. 



364 GROTESQUE 

Heavy in flight and blurred in sight, 

As lightning strikes an oak 
It struck the rocks precipitate; 

And dolorous was that stroke 
With shattered mail and sharded scale 

And both the pinions broke. 

And round and round it made a sound 

Like the storm ravined sea; 
With smoke and fire in gyre on gyre 

Down it fell dreadfully 
And the barbed rock gave shock on shock 

Unto that agony. 

Upon the topmost mountain peak 

Staggered the lion at last; 
His eyes were closed on the red west; 

His full length he down cast 
Unmindful of the safety won 

Or the peril overpast. 

And when once more he oped his eyes 

He lay on a pillow beer; 
Under the rafters of bamboo 

His mother stood anear; 
His bones were like the lukewarm tea; 

His mind was far from clear. 

"Sweet!" said his mother, "Curly lion, 

Be nevermore afraid. 
The moons in vain shall wax and wane; 

Thy glory shall not fade; 
Nor longer fearful fantasy 

Thy riper days invade. 



A MOTHER'S TEST 365 

"For thou hast faced the foe that chased 

Thee up the rocks in vain; 
Braven the dragon in his lair 

And come to me again 
Unto mine eyes more beautiful 

For travail of great pain." 

He is a curly Chinese lion, 

A powerful Dog of Fo. 
He and his mother dwell their days 

Beyond the Hoang-Ho 
Upon the Mountain of Desire 

Where the pale, pink peonies grow. 

And every night the starry choir 

Is nearer to them both; 
And every day the shade at noon 

Is lief and never loath; 
And every hour the mutual love 

Grows with a larger growth. 

But oft by the Feitsui Cliffs 

That rise precipitously, 
While in the rays of early morn 

They bask full pleasantly, 
The baby lion's heart stops still 

With a poignant memory. 

And oft upon his pillow beer 

In the domain of night, 
When sleep half closes both his eyes 

But doth not close them tight, 
His vision teems with horrid dreams 

And he roars and roars in fright. 



366 GROTESQUE 

And always by the night or noon 
When with his mother he 

Remembers of her former deed 
And all his agony, 

He bears the stain of a deeper pain 
Than a mother's eye can see. 



A BROWNIE CHORUS 

We are the pipers of the pretty little fays ! 
We fiddle and we flute ere the coming of the days. 
If a merry mortal man were to hear us late or soon, 
He will dance for a whole revolution of the moon! 
He will dance if he sit; he will dance when he stands; 
If a churl of little wit or a lord of many lands ; 

For the elfin taper burns 

And he turns and he turns 
Like a wind in a wilderness of lands. 

We work upon the night; we are lazy all the day 

In the cranny of the haymow where the guinea fowls lay. 

If your cow miscalves, or your horse goes lame, 

Or the cream doth curdle in the pan, 
Or cider turns to vinegar or tallow will not flame, 

You may know 't is the little Brownie man. 
When the tares in the barley begin for to sprout 
Oh 't is then you may know that we ought to be about! 
When the maggot's on the cheese or distemper in the 

mare, 
Oh 't is then you may know that the Brownie boys are 

there. 

Here and there 
Wherever grows a tare 
Oh 't is then you may know we are come to take the air. 



GROTESQUE 367 

So leave an oaten cake and a little bit of beer 
On a good flat stone where the forest grows near, 
And beyond any doubt 
We will chase the humors out. 
For the good flows in and the bad flows out; 
And your cow double calves, and your horse is on the 

trot, 
And the wheat grows thick and the cream you have got 

Is fit for the table of a king. 
Then poverty and want, they are banished evermore, 
And your farm brings double what it brought before, 
And health and happy days we will bring, we will 

bring, 
And health and happy days we will bring. 



THE OWL AND THE TURTLE DOVE. 

O the garden seat, 

For lovers made 
To meet and greet 

In the myrtle shade! 
A fair red rose 

Near the myrtle grove, 
It grows and blows 

Like promised love. 

To the garden hies 

A turtle dove, 
With eager eyes 

For a couple in love. 
She coos in her bliss 

To the rose nearby: 
"O the joy of a kiss 

When the noon is nigh!" 



368 GROTESQUE 

But the garden owl 

Is much more wise; 
For he wakes to prowl 

When daylight dies. 
He looks at the seat 

In the light of the moon, 
Where a couple meet 

Again to spoon. 

And the owl at night 

Has grown very wise 
Thro' the power of sight 

Of his large, round eyes. 
You may trust the word 

Of a blushing rose. 
'T is a wise old bird 

And he knows, he knows. 

Now the midnight fowl 

Very wise is he; 
And the turtle and owl 

Together agree, 
'T is a girl's own way 

When a lover is blind, 
Two times a day 

To change her mind. 

"But, coo! coo! coo!" 

Says the turtle dove, 
"A girl is true 

To her own heart's love!" 
"To who? to who? " 

Says the owl to the rose, 
"She 's fooling you." 

And he knows, he knows. 



GROTESQUE 369 

THE BABY TROGAN 

Oh! the baby trogan, he 

Sits upon the cocoanut tree! 

Oh! the baby trogan, he 

Waves his tail all over the tree! 

So he sits and all day long 

Sweetly, sweetly warbles a song: 

"I 'm a beautiful baby bird; 

Look upon my pea green tail! 

Long, is not the proper word. 

Even lovely, won't avail." 

(Long and lovely, lovely and long, 

While the trogan warbles his song; 

Look at the baby trogan's tail! 

Look at the baby trogan's tail!) 

"All unhappy at home to stay, 

I had rather fly away 

Where mine eyes no more might see 

Quinine tree and cocoanut tree. 

So I flapped my wings and flew 

And my tail, it steered me too, 

Till I came beneath a house. 

There I lay as still as a mouse, 

While above I heard the cry: 

'Where did the baby trogan fly?' 

Quinine tree and cocoanut tree 

Vainly, vainly barked for me. 

O 't was dark within that cellar; 

There you could n't tell red from yellar. 

O ' twas very dark and damp 

And I caught a little cramp; 

O 't was very damp and dark 

And the floor was cold and stark; 

Naught of value there to be seen, 

Red or blue or yellow or green! 



370 GROTESQUE 

Vainly would I wave my tail, 
Vainly weep and vainly wail; 
Weeping, wailing all in vain 
How did I get back again? 
All the tale I need not tell; 
Mother found me fair and well. 
Quinine tree and cocoanut tree 
Proudly bear my mother and me. 
Peoples' eyes and souls we suit 
Better than the cocoanut fruit; 
Unto our music people hark 
Liefer than the quinine bark. 
So we sit and warble a song 
Loud and lovely, loud and long: 
'Trogan lost and trogan found! 
Trogan, trogan underground! 
Trogan, trogan hearty and hale! 
Look at the baby trogan's tail! 
Look at the baby trogan's tail!' " 



IN A SCRAP BOOK 

These birds have never ope'd a beak, 

Nor never sung a song, 
Nor never an angleworm they seek 

Through all the summer long. 
Alive they nevermore may be, 

Although they never died; 
They 're never stuffed because, you see, 

They 've never an inside. 

These flowers upon the summer air 
No pleasant perfume made, 

Nor blossomed in the sunlight fair, 
Nor slept in chequered shade, 



GROTESQUE 371 

Nor bee sought honey in their cup ; 

But never dawns the day 
When they must languish and close up 

And droop and fade away. 

O birds and flowers! your lot appears 

Most happy on this page. 
For you no passage of waste years; 

For you no pangs of age. 
Thrice blessed in your beauty be 

Bright bloom without an end, 
Even as a happy memory 

Or as a faithful friend. 



A BIT OF OLD CHINA 

Ever dwells a mandarin 
On a Canton china plate; 

And his name, it is Ah Sin, 
And his life, it is to wait 

For the lady Ah Lee Ho 

By a bridge of indigo. 

On the other waterside 

From her lattice, Ah Lee Ho 

Hath her mandarin espied 
Many and many a year ago. 

"Why delays he?" doth she cry; 

Echo answers with a sigh. 

Doth he fear the bridge is frail, 

Triple arch of indigo? 
Doth he wait a word of hail 

From the lady Ah Lee Ho? 
Ever 't is the same old story, 
Mandarins are dilatory. 



372 GROTESQUE 



OLYMPIA 

Would you marry a dancing doll, 
Flaxen hair and blue eyes bright, 

Ready to talk like pretty Poll, 
Every word will come out right: 

"Ha! ha! ha! 
Ma and pa! 
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la !" 

" O my dolly, dolly my dear! 

Won't you marry me, tender, true, 
My little wife for year and year?" 

(Wind her up, she '11 answer you :) 

"Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha! 

Papa! papa! 
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la ! 

Mamma! mamma!" 

List, O list to the dancing doll! 

"I don't know you. I can't tell. 
All men's words are fol-de-rol. 

You don't love me any too well. 

"I don't know, 

While I go, 
Dancing, dancing, heel and toe. 

Ask papa ! 

Ask mamma! 
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la!" 



GROTESQUE) 373 

So, in a dream, you 've won love's goal? 

Gallant youth, beware! beware! 
Would you win to heart and soul, 

Then you '11 find the sawdust there. 



"Sawdust? Fie! 

That is why 
Married men are high and dry?" 

"Ask papa! 

Ask mamma! 
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la ! 
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!" 



THE FROGS' WARNING 

The people here will soon be killed 

The silly manner that they build; 

They build their houses in the hole 

Where dwell the frog and young tadpole; 

They build their houses in the bogs 

Amid the tadpoles and the frogs, 

And when they build them out of stone, 

They hear the frogs and tadpoles groan; 

They hear the poor young tadpole say: 

"Alas, alack and weladay!" 

But when the houses all are built 

And all the chandeliers are gilt, 

Then come the frogs in shoals and nations 

To curse them with their visitations; 

And round about the big front door 

The tadpoles pash and paddle o'er; 

And all along the area rail 

Bach moulting tadpole hangs a tail; 



374 GROTESQUE 

And though they never will rejoice 

They make a most infernal noise. 

They croak and honk and hawk up grimly 

When evening twilight stirreth dimly; 

And when the moon is in the skies 

They gaze and gaze with myriad eyes; 

And when at morn the ewe lamb baas 

They crush the young begonias; 

At noon, along the gravel path 

They take on land a good sun bath; 

Over the lawn the tadpoles swim 

And raise their mournful matin hymn; 

Because the water floweth free 

Wherever hardy turf should be. 

'Tis: "Weladay! alas! alack!" 

And the big bull frog echoes back. 

T' is: "Weladay! alack! alas!" 

And the big bull frog comes in bass. 

'T is "Rheumatism paineth you." 

The bull frog croaks: "And that's too true." 

'T is: "Death will put you in your bunk." 

And the big bull frog goes: "Cuttunk!" 

'T is: "Who come here must live on gruel." 

The bull frog answers: "Fate is cruel." 

And all together in the night 

When stars are pale in the moonlight, 

Join in a chorus grand and strong 

The flooded flower beds among. 

"Cuttunk! cuttunk! why came you here? 

Cuttunk! your meaning is not clear. 

Cuttunk! your voices must be harsh 

If you would drive us from our marsh. 

Cuttunk! this hole is too profound; 

You ought to live on higher ground. 

Go build! go build on yonder hill 

And leave us in the meadow still. 



GROTESQUE 375 

Cuttunk, cuttunk, cuttunk, cuttunk! 

To stand the damp you 've not the spunk. 

Cuttunk, cuttunk! and bye and bye 

You '11 get malaria and you '11 die. 

Cuttunk! disease is long and slow 

And that 's the way you '11 have to go ; 

Take our advice, good people, pray, 

And leave your home and go away; 

For otherwise you '11 have to go 

A longer journey than you know." 

So sing the frogs on the evening air 

But still the people linger there 

To eat and drink; and, fool or knave, 

They walk into the silent grave. 

They do not take the frog's advice 

And life is over in a trice. 

They do not heed the tadpoles' song 

And so their life is not for long; 

But folks have no more brains than rabbits 

To break away from evil habits. 



FEMINA NOVA 

They talk about freedom, how woman should stand 

Man's equal by custom and laws of the land. 

But of beauty essential and truth as such, 

You never need think they will care very much; 

Or their words and their actions would never disgrace 

Our mothers, our homes and the dreams of our race. 



376 GROTESQUE 

i 

THE LAMENT OF SUNDRY ANGLEWORMS 

INCARCERATED IN A WOODEN BOX 

AND THEIR PIOUS PRAYER FOR ONE 

WHO PITIED THEIR PLIGHT 

Mewed in four wooden walls that cruelly 

Do chafe our tender, sinuous sides, we mourn 
The sweet, dark soil of our nativity, 
Our wives and little children all forlorn. 

Happy our comrades whom the spade hath slain 
That split and rived our earthen corridors! 

Yea, happy they who wriggled in their pain 

Pierced with the hook, for yawning, watery jaws! 

Cursed be the fiend who snatched us from our home 
And, still denying the poor boon of death, 

Dumped us in here and cast on alien loam 
And left us to our memories beneath! 

We have no heart to tunnel galleries 

Amid that dirt, though rich it be and good, 

Teeming with larvae of a thousand flies, 

And moisture grateful to our languished blood. 

The wives we shall embrace ah! nevermore, 
The children from our ribband bodies sprung, 

Lonely shall trail the strawberry blossoms o'er, 
Lonely shall twine the sprouting corn among! 

Within the halls of pleasance and of state 
Our vermin fathers reared in olden time, 

Our loved ones intertwist all desolate; 

On the brown pavement fall their tears of slime. 



GROTESQUE 377 

And yet we know nor grief, nor pain, say some, 
Because forsooth we have no nervous system. 

May all such go impaled to Kingdom Come 

Upon the hook where fishes rend and twist' em! * 



Our intellects may ne'er be very clear, 

With brain, mouth, stomach into one compressed. 
How may we ponder all the talk we hear 

With organs mainly intended to digest? 

Yet do we feel I Oh! what emotions quiver 
All up and down our alimentary duct, 

When we consider that we are forever 

From friends and fatherland untimely plucked, 



Babblers and quibblers, ye who snatched us thence, 
Your adamantine hearts may never learn! 

Only a mind to vacancy prepense 

Can by its sympathy our plight discern. 



THE PRAYER 

Therefore we pray to the All Father Worm, 

The mystic Circle of Eternity 
On that dread day when all create shall squirm 

Prostrate before His coiled majesty, 



They who compassionate may be repaid 
While others at His mercy justly tremble; 

Since us whom in His image He hath made, 
They in their structure closely do resemble. 



378 GROTESQUE 

THE JOYS OF VENICE 
(A. D. 1500.) 

You may talk about your travel 

Marco Polo to outface. 
There 's a mystery to unravel 

Here at home or any place. 
But for happiness, gay or solemn, 

Give me Venice, night or noon, 
With the lion upon his column 

Hard beside the still lagoon. 

Proud you be as Moro or Dandola 

Underneath the harvest moon, 
While so silently glides the gondola 

O'er and o'er the still lagoon. 
For a gondola, I may mention 

As inducement unto you, 
Hath been framed with kind intention 

To afford just room for two. 

Soldier, sailor, great guild president, 

Crowd the Rialto, end to end. 
Hollander, Turk and native resident, 

Any one who has gold to spend. 
How they chaffar for silk and spicery, 

Hazarding fortunes late and soon, 
Fortunes fit for king or viceroy 

All beside the still lagoon. 

Then at eve with Nicholetta 

Lustrous eyed beneath the moon, 

Ogling on the Piazzetta, 

Drifting o'er the still lagoon. 



GROTESQUE 379 

Though you pay your coin properly, 

Be you a gentile or a Jew, 
O'er her heart you 've no monopoly; 

There is always room for two. 

Fairy Bride of the Adriatic, 

Wealth of ages in your halls, 
Still your revels shall be ecstatic, 

Glitter still your carnivals! 
When alone I suffer tedium, 

All the notes are out of tune, 
Quickly I get from bad to medium, 

Thinking of your still lagoon! 

Oh! the Venetian girls are beautiful 

Underneath a harvest moon! 
Full lipped, broad hipped, not very dutiful, 

Hard beside the still lagoon! 
O Saint Mark's with gold leaf portico, 

Where the saints look down on you ! 
Down the aisles a twenty and forty go; 

I prefer a place for two! 



TO AN APE 

You that are a simian, 
Would you rather be a man ? 
Nay, when all his work is done, 
Man and simian are one. 



EPITAPH FOR A NONENITY 

Virtue he 'd none to show nor vice to hide; 
Nature abhors a vacuum, — so he died. 



380 GROTESQUE 



THE BALLADE OF THE TOURIST 

Hail to thee, terrible typical tourist! 
Baedecker open neath thine eyes, 
Linen frayed and none of the purest, 
Trousers not of the proper size. 
Full of wonder and wild surmise, 
Seeing what there is to see, 
Where the locomotive flies; 
Hail! O typical terrible T! 

Wind and wave thou gladly endurest 
Though the gorge within thee rise; 
Beds of the liveliest, fare of the poorest 
Ne'er thy zeal may jeopardize, 
Canst thou only scrutinize 
Every land indifferently; 
Scythian wilds or paradise. 
Hail! O typical terrible T! 

Whether at home divine or jurist, 
Tutor of youth more wordy than wise, 
Doctor or quack alike who curest, 
Vendor of votes or merchandise; 
Here abroad in the selfsame guise, 
Peripatetic thy path shall be, 
Poking thy nose neath foreign skies. 
Hail! O typical terrible T! 

ENVOY 

Wandering Jew the curse and prize 
Now at length are reft from thee! 
Cease thy toil and join our cries ! 
"Hail! O typical terrible T!" 



GROTESQUE 381 



THE BALLADE OF PETER 

Peter, every cursed night, 
Did his turn in vaudeville play; 
Smoked a cigarette, polite 
As an English duke blas6; 
Rode his wheel in brave array 
Like an expert cyclist, he; 
And the horsewhip was his pay. 
Peter was a chimpanzee. 

How he cried out in affright 
When on him the lash they 'd lay! 
How he 'd fain in sudden fight 
Choke his owner, smite and slay! 
But he ne'er could win the fray 
Like the monarch of the tree, 
King Gorilla, gaunt and gray. 
He was just a chimpanzee. 

He could only scratch and bite 
When his soul was brought to bay. 
Slavery and stripes, his plight. 
So he saw his life decay, 
Heartsick, hopeless, not a ray 
Of delight for him to see, 
Save in death, that flies away 
Even with a chimpanzee. 

ENVOY 

Prince of heaven, whose ancient sway 
Counts each sparrow separately, 17, 
Pray Thee deal on Judgment Day, 
Justice to this chimpanzee. 



382 GROTESQUE 

THE COMPLAINT OF A TRAINED NURSE 
UNTRAINED IN LITERATURE 

(a baixade in hospital) 

If people did n't read and write, 
I 'd nurse 'em gladly, soon or late. 
A good, smart novel goes all right, 
If reasonably up to date; 
And magazines, I think they 're great ; 
At dime romance, I'd tip the wink; 
The Evening Journal is first rate 
If people would n't write or think. 

If they lie still and shut up tight, 

I 'd serve 'em neat and delicate. 

I 'd tend 'em up and treat 'em white 

If only they 'd appreciate. 

But when they read some queer old skate 

Whose words would put you on the blink, 

I 'd have a heart for any fate 

Where people would n't write or think. 

And where they scribble here in sight 
The stuff itself, I tell you straight 
I cannot stay and be polite; 
I 'm going to go immediate. 
If all good people in the state 
Should take to using pen and ink, 
I 'd even go away by freight 
Where people would n't write or think. 

ENVOY 

Prince of the world, I '11 congregate 
With downs and outs on Lethe's brink; 
And let the current soak my pate, 
Where people would n't write or think. 



THE OLD MAN TALKS 383 

THE OLD MAN TALKS 

Hello, young man! you want a job, you say? 

There 's plenty others wanting jest that thing; 

We ain't got room for any one jest now; 

Good morning. What! you say your name is Jones 

From down by Hillsboro way? I do believe 

You're Cynthy's son. Well, that's her writing sure ; 

A leetle quavery, but still the same. 

I guess we both ain't what we used to be 

Forty-five years ago. You 've got her eyes, 

That same peert gray; also you favor her 

About the nose; yer mouth is more like Hank's; 

Hers was more rounding as I recollect. 

Young man, I 'm glad to see ye. Set ye down. 

About that job ; I '11 see what I can do. 

You might step down to-morrow an' look round 

An' sort o' kind o' get the hang o' things 

Down in the lower office; and you 'd hev 

To make yerself familiar with the goods. 

Them critters' hides piled in the tannery 

Is all of different qualities an' kinds; 

An' the more kinds you know, the better off 

You '11 be. Of course you can do figgering 

The common sort ; I would n't want no more. 

This is my office and I keep my books 

In my own way; not like them business schools 

That sends their gradooates round hereabouts 

To show what double entry ought to be. 

We don't have no smart Alecs round this ranch. 

You foller in the footsteps of my clerks 

An' you won't have no chance of goin' wrong. 

Now, if you 're up in foreign languages 

Like French an' Spanish, that might help us out 

Considerable. We get a lot o' hides 



384 GROTESQUE 

From Argentine: We have an agency 

At Bonus Airs; its natural we 'd like 

To read our letters easily and fast. 

You do know French, you say? not Spanish though? 

Well, well, that ain't so bad. To-morrow then 

You come an' take your desk, and we will see 

Whether we suit each other; an' meanwhile 

Perhaps you 'd like to find some boarding house 

That 's handy, clean an' cheap. You might do worse 

Than call around at twenty Myrtle Street, 

The Young Men's Christian ; they give references. 

An' if there 's any help that I kin be, 

Jest let me know; an' I stan' ready here 

To do ye all I can ; for that 's my way. 

I think you '11 find you '11 get along right nice. 

You 've got the get there look all right enough. 

Only be prompt an' punctual, an' don't think 

You know the whole durn business right away; 

An' if promotion don't come every week, 

Or raise of salary but once a year, 

Don't cuss about your luck. I tell ye now 

There ain't no luck in all this whole, wide world. 

There 's pluck an' perseverence an' there 's brains ; 

There ain't no luck at all. If you '11 excuse 

Me jest a minute — there 's the telephone. 

Hello! Yes? Down two points? Well, cover it all! — 

Set nothin' down to luck an' you' 11 succeed. 

Do what you 're told an' think out for yourself 

What you' re not told; hustle an' look alive; 

Attend your church on Sunday. I tell you 

The business man, he knows the smart young man 

Out of a crowd o' rascals. Don't you booze 

An' don't you go with women. Keep away 

From all temptations of the devil, boy. 

You keep your spirit clean an' undefiled 

An' walk the way of vartu an' of peace; 



THE OLD MAN TALKS 385 

An' look alive an' hustle an' get along. 
Stick to your job an' don't you make a kick 
At working half an hour arter time; 
Be willing an' obedient; pleasant too; 
An' if you 're sulky, jest you bottle it up 
An' don't you show it here. I'm talking now 
The same way I would talk to my own son. 
That is the way a good man makes success; 
A bad man won't succeed no kind o' way. 
Do right by men an' they '11 do right by you. 
I speak of business, not of politics 
Or labor unions or them kind o' stuff, 
The devil's own, I call 'em. Keep away 
From all them forms o' sin; an' keep away 
From this new fangled talk of freeborn men 
Limiting labor an' the right o' work, 
The right o' doin' what a man kin do 
For self an' family; the right to do 
Jest what he pleases with the coin he earns; 
The right o' workin' hard as ever he kin 
For jest what he an' his employer please ; 
The blessed right to labor every day 
Except the Sabbath, given by God to Man 
An' prized by every trew American! 
The right of earning money, keepin' it, 
An' doin' what he likes with what is his'n. 
Why every man out in the shop you '11 find 
With card an' number, ticketed like thieves, 
An' that 's the union number an' they work 
For jest ten hours a day, an' nothing more 
Kin I get out of any of them fellars. 
An' every other day's a holiday 
An' honest labor turns to idleness! 
Why don't they call the state milishy out? 
High in the governor's chair sits anarchy 
An' rank corruption in the noonday sun 



386 GROTESQUE 

Of sheer publicity, an' all around 

Is idleness an' insolence an' lies 

An' breaking the non unions o'er the head; 

The boycott an' the mob a-throwin' stones; 

The murder of the man who stays to work; 

An' every kind of reckless deviltry 

Them walking delegates hatch in their minds ! 

You 'd think they run my business an' not I , 

Them walking delegates an' laboring men! 

Oh, what a name for them! the laboring man, 

Who only labors when you 're lookin on; 

Who hain't the manhood of a hog on ice ! 

You keep away from them an' all they mean 

An' all they try to do an' ail they think. 

You stay to home at evening; read the word 

Of God, the Holy Bible ; then you go 

To bed an' shun the snares of union clubs, 

Socialist talk an' houses of ill fame 

An' rum an' rowdy actions an' the wild 

Deviltry that young men do nowadays! 

An' don't you try that other kind o' thing, 

Goin to the theeayter, readin' poems, 

An' listenin' to music, when you might 

Be studyin' the way young men get on. 

I don't say now an' then a little bit 

O' recreation doos a man much harm; 

Only don't get mixed up with all them things ; 

There 's many fools around the city here 

Think some French novel's better'n holy writ; 

An' talks of Emerson an' Longfellow 

Like as if they was solid citizens. 

Don't think because a fellar rhymes his words 

He is a better man than Marshall Field. 

Keep your eyes on success. Let the rest go. 

It ain't wuth foolin' with; it ain't the thing. 

These hifalutin silly new ideas 



GROTESQUE 387 

Is wuss than rum an' women. That 's my mind. 
Keep your own way. Be smarter than the rest. 
Give God his due an' be an honest man. 
Good mornin. Come around to-morrow then 
Bight o'clock sharp. The business starts that time; 
Not half a minute later! Mind my words 
The Bible an' your native honesty! — 
Hello, hello! that's Rawson? Mrs. White 
Can' t pay the money down? She says she '11 have 
It by to-morrow? But the time 's today! 
Loves the old place? Hain't nowhere else to go? 
Well, well, I don't know nothin about that; 
If she can't pay the cash, I must foreclose. 



THE RED BLOODED HEROES 

' ' The philosopher will admire them as the last incarnation of 
the heroic age, when the man is bigger than his work. " RECENT 
Novel. 

Oh! the city gal ain't got no pal; 

Her fellars are all too tony; 
An' all their stuff an' all their guff 

Can't break her a buckin' pony; 
An' every bore on the ball room floor 

Can just pull down his vest; 
She 's given her heart till death do part 
To the woolly boys out west! 

For a man who trains his body an' brains 

That gal ain't got no use. 
She 's read in a book of a cowboy crook 

An' a jack with spiked shoes. 
He is alius broke an' cheats at poke 

An' alius needs a shave; 
But he comes at the end, his knees to bend 

An' be her lovin' slave. 



388 GROTESQUE 

Oh! his trousis bag an' his trousis sag, 

An' his hair falls over his ears; 
He ain't refined an' he hain't no mind 

An' he ain't got nice ideas; 
But his pictur if took an' put in a book 

Will make the red blood stir, 
For he is the child of the western wild 

An' that is the man for her! 

She reads an' reads of cowboy deeds 

An' how they works an' fights. 
She dreams they all is heroes tall 

Like them Arabian knights. 
But if she knew 'em what they do, 

An' heered 'em what they say, 
She 'd turn her nose where the onions grows 

An' walk another way. 

'T ain't often you meet on prairie or street 

A man an' a hero too; 
For ten to one he's a son of a gun 

Or else like me an' you. 
You may call him loud in a Broadway crowd 

Or scout him over the plains — 
An onery man on an onery plan 

An onery man remains. 

But the gals, they fancies them romances 

Of cowboy heroes bold; 
An' they lie outright in black and white 

Who scribble their lies for gold. 
A hero ain't the thing they paint 

Who scribble the books to sell. 
He might instead be a thoroughbred 

An' a gentleman as well. 



PUG AND PARROT 389 



PUG AND PARROT 
(an urban dialogue) 

The snow was piled on Beacon Hill 
And fast the ice did hold; 

The coldest heart in Boston Town 
Was warmer than that cold; 

But in Virginia's library- 
Was comfort manifold. 

The fire was bright, the lamp alight 

To read the printed page. 
Strong tea was there when she did care 

That craving to assuage. 
The fat she pug was on the rug 

The parrot in her cage. 

The fat she pug was Phoebe called; 

The parrot, Mary Jane, 
Who said: "Why don't Virginia come? 

She 's staying out late again!" 
Said Phoebe: *"T is the Woman's Club 

That calls her to remain." 

Said Mary Jane: "I hate a fool! 

Odds zooks, they come our way! 
Drat Browning! Drat that Wagner man! 

And drat that Ibsen play! 
Shiver my timbers, them damn clubs 

Is more than hell to pay!" 



39© GROTESQUE 

The pug upturned a sable nose. 

Said she: "It were my prayer 
That on the steamer from Brazil 

You had not learned to swear. 
It gives your very best ideas 

A very vulgar air." 

The parrot swelled from ear to tail. 

Said she: "You want me riled? 
You chuck that 'vulgar' overboard; 

I ain't a two year child!" 
Said Phoebe: "Feelings may be deep, 

But words may yet be mild. 

"Instead of 'damn' I 'm sure that 'sham' 
Would answer quite as well. 

'The deuce to pay' is anyway 
Less impolite than 'hell'." 

Said Mary: "Split my mizzen-top! 
They be a blasted sell!" 

Said Phoebe: "With the words you say, 

I 'd readily agree 
If you could only pass the day 

Without profanity. 
I don't approve her latest move 

In being late to tea. 

"I long have felt Virginia 

Was getting out at heels." 
Said Poll: "Responsibility 

That woman never feels! 
Just think how late we have to wait 

To jine her at her meals! 



PUG AND PARROT 39 1 

"And when she comes from clubs and slums 

What blamed ideas she brings! 
Gets into fights on women's rights 

And souls' awakenings 
Women in art and Delesarte 

And lots of foolish things! 

"And that there weekly reading club 

Is like an evil dream! 
They set and sew and will not go 

But read a steady stream. 
They read all day and drone away 

And make me want to scream! 

"And when they blab about the books, 

When they begin to jaw 
About the most unpleasant play 

Of Mr. Bernard Shaw, 
Blow me, I 'd like to hop right down 

And use my bill and claw!" 

Said Phcebe: "Anger was born blind 

And only children bawl! 
Smile gently, when you 're most inclined 

On Fate to squawk and squall. 
It only ruffles up the mind. 

And is no use at all!" 

"Tut, tut!" said Polly, "Cut it out! 

Odds bodds! don't talk to me! 
It is my rule to hate a fool 

And hate a reading bee!" 
Said Phcebe: "I object alone 

To immorality. 



392 GROTESQUE 

"When they begin on mortal sin 
This room in pain I leave, 

On the clean spread of the spare bed 
Some comfort to retrieve. 

Did I not know that good must grow 
Oh, Polly, I could grieve 

"Over the horrid books they read, 
The modern problem kind! 

I cannot say in any way 
To horrors I 'm inclined. 

I only wish Virginia 

Had not so keen a mind." 

Said Poll: "You balk at modern talk. 

You must be more than green! 
Why back into the bible times 

They said the things you mean. 
And that there Song of Soloman, 

I call it most obscene!" 

The pug gave out a puzzled wheeze. 

Said she: "I only know 
The holy book was edited 

Three thousand years ago; 
And people then were different, dear, 

And men are always low. 

"Let 's learn to look upon the good 

And overlook the bad. 
The world will be a better place 

And we ourselves less sad." 
Said Polly: "I ain't born that way; 

It 's natur to get mad." 



PUG AND PARROT 393 



Said Phoebe: "If you go my way 
And read the books I read — 

Emerson on the oversoul 
Is very nice indeed, 

And Samuel Crothers is a dear — 
You '11 find there is no need. 



"And think of all the gentlemen 

That make us merry cheer. 
The unitarian minister 

Is such a perfect dear. 
Though like the blessed Christmas-tide 

He comes but once a year. 

"His presence sheds a genial glow 

When the afternoons are cool. 
Why! when he leaves, I feel as though 

I 'd been to Sunday school. 
O how I hate to see him go!" 

Said Polly: "I hate a fool!" 

"Now Mary Jane, I beg and pray 

That vulgar phrase you drop. 
Do you keep it up the livelong day 

Your intellect to prop?" 
Said Polly again: "I hate a fool!" 

Said Phoebe: "Will you stop!" 

"He stuffs the plumcake down his throat," 

Cried Polly, "Blast my jib! 
He ain't got nuttin' but his bloat 

For all he may be glib. 
He may be whiskered like a goat. 

He 'd oughter wear a bib! 



394 GROTESQUE 

"He may be good to finish food 
When others ain't began; 

And talk all day with nit to say 
Wuss than Virginia can; 

But blow my topsails, blast my jib! 
Why don't she take a man?" 

Said Phoebe: "Bird, is there no word 

To make you hesitate? 
If all your phrases did not come 

Out of an empty pate, 
I 'd clearly call them one and all 

Your most indelicate! 



"You dare to name Virginia 
And a man in the selfsame breath? 

She 's like the good Saint Ursula 
And Saint Elizabeth! 

Only the shame to couple her name 
Would drive her down to death! 

"Her soul doth face o'er time and space 
How all things live and die; 

And roundabout and in and out 
The wherefore and the why. 

The poor love plan of any man 
She grandly would pass by. 

"She hath full sure a spirit pure 

That vision to attain. 
She dwells above all earthly love 

And carnal joy and pain. 
The poor love plan of any man 

Would rouse her grand disdain. 



PUG AND PARROT 395 

"She loves the things of intellect 

And loves the household pet. 
She never turned to one who burned 

In baser passion yet. 
There 's never a man in the whole world's plan 

CouJd rouse her to forget." 

"O fudge!" said Polly, "Go to grass! 

I hate a fool! good day! 
'T aint' a good plan for no male man 

To come around her way. 
A pair of pants don't take that chance — 

I hate a fool, I say," 

In wheeze and howl of roused growl 

Poor Phoebe did begin 
An answer plain to Mary Jane 

Rebuking of her sin. 
When at the door, the threshold o'er 

Virginia, she stepped in. 

And when she came into the room, 

All conversation stopped. 
The firelight flickered on the floor; 

On the hearth the embers dropped- 
The pug rolled o'er on the hard wood floor; 

On her perch the parrot hopped. 

For when she came into the room 

All evil turned to good. 
The angry word of dog and bird 

Subsided where she stood; 
And peace from out the jangle grew 

As hunger banished food. 



396 GROTESQUE 

And all the trio, a happy band, 

At tea or kettledrum, 
Full tacitly did understand 

The intellectual sum 
Of single female blessedness 

Where never a man could come. 



ENVOY 

Go little book, frail paper boat, 

Though painted brave with fancy free! 

The boy who made thee far to float 
Hath launched thee forth upon the sea. 

Slow gliding o'er the shallow reach 
Where other children shout at play, 

The billows bear thee from the beach; 
The west wind wafts thee far away. 

Fondly thy pilot hopes ere night 
Steal o'er the waves without a star, 

Some voyager view thee for a light, 
And hail thy passage from afar. 

Alas, he knoweth, soon or late, 

Before Fame's harbor may be won, 

Thou and thy dreams will find their fate 
In oceans of oblivion! 



3CT 23 *»• 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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